Beware of Power Absolute, Unshared

July 9, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Bastille Day, which is celebrated on July 14.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

A Bastille Day poem about the dangers of absolute power even in the hands of those who wish to do good:

Beware of power absolute, unshared,

As you pursue the ends that are your passion.

So why might one, as sovereign, choose to ration

The power one might summon unimpaired?

In doing so, one sees what one might be:

Like those whose ends were good, but means were not;

Like those who hoped that blood might sweep the rot

Encrusted on their longings out to sea.

Desperate to do good, some would, unchecked,

Appropriate the world they would perfect.

Yet evil knows no ideology.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bewar4.html. For more Bastille Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Bastille Day

7/8: Brace Yourself for Love, for It Is Coming

7/9: Beware of Power Absolute, Unshared

Brace Yourself for Love, for It Is Coming

July 8, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Bastille Day, which is celebrated on July 14.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

A Bastille Day poem about the need for love in making economic choices:

Brace yourself for love, for it is coming,

A wave of love that well might knock you down.

So may you lose your hard-earned rep for cunning,

The ruthlessness for which you are renowned.

In every moment, every thought and feeling,

Love waits for you to turn and it is there,

Lying ‘neath the equities you’re dealing

Endlessly, a longing that you share.

Do, then, turn, and let yourself be broken,

And let your pain and sorrow be a token

You leave for those who deal and do not care.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bracey.html. For more Bastille Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Bastille Day

7/8: Brace Yourself for Love, for It Is Coming

In Every Point of View That's Held Sincerely

July 7, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Independence Day (USA).

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

An Independence Day poem about the need to embrace opposing truths through love:

In every point of view that’s held sincerely,

Not intended for manipulation,

Decent folks just speaking from the heart,

Each selfish, selfless, idealistic cynic

Pursues a radiant, iridescent truth.

Embrace them all, ingenuously and dearly,

Nor deem one truth not worth consideration

Despite your own perhaps dissenting part.

Each voice adds to the beauty of Earth’s music,

Nor does a vivid counterpoint need proof.

Clearly there is hatred, yes, quite clearly,

Eluding reason, fact, faith, love, relation,

Damning all belief, truth, passion, art,

A scourge that turns the sweetest truth acidic.

Yet love puts all truths under one large roof.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ineve8.html. For more Independence Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Independence Day (USA)

7/1: Justice Now Means Food, Health, Habitation

7/2: Indeed, from Whom or What Are Rights Derived

7/3: Justice Is a Collection Agency

7/4: Indeed, This Should Be Interdependence Day

7/5: Inevitably, the World Will Be One Country

7/6: Jury’s Still Out, I Guess, on Democracy

7/7: In Every Point of View That’s Held Sincerely

Jury's Still Out, I Guess, on Democracy

July 6, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Independence Day (USA).

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

An Independence Day poem about the uncertainty of democracy’s survival:

Jury’s still out, I guess, on democracy.

Unfortunately, it ever will be so.

Let go the wished-for verdict, let it go,

Yielding to a sure uncertainty.

False democracies continually

Overrun wherever laws can’t grow.

Underneath our waves, an undertow

Returns our hopes for freedom to the sea.

The forecast even here now threatens pain --

Here, where we must rise again, again.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/juryss.html. For more Independence Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Independence Day (USA)

7/1: Justice Now Means Food, Health, Habitation

7/2: Indeed, from Whom or What Are Rights Derived

7/3: Justice Is a Collection Agency

7/4: Indeed, This Should Be Interdependence Day

7/5: Inevitably, the World Will Be One Country

7/6: Jury’s Still Out, I Guess, on Democracy

Inevitably, the World Will Be One Country

July 5, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Independence Day (USA).

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

An Independence Day poem about the world as one country:

Inevitably, the world will be one country,

Nor will there be a need for barbed-wire borders

Defending those that have from those that haven’t.

Everyone will have an equal voice

Politically in governing the Earth.

Eventually, humanities’ shared bounty

No longer will be siphoned off by hoarders,

Divvied up unmercifully, with blatant

Economic myths to mask their choice,

Needing myths to justify their worth.

Change will come, a summer wind or wintry,

Evolving or rebelling, a new order

Destined by demography, emergent,

As some lament their loss and some rejoice,

Yet all yield to the light of this rebirth.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/inevit.html. For more Independence Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Independence Day (USA)

7/1: Justice Now Means Food, Health, Habitation

7/2: Indeed, from Whom or What Are Rights Derived

7/3: Justice Is a Collection Agency

7/4: Indeed, This Should Be Interdependence Day

7/5: Inevitably, the World Will Be One Country

Indeed, This Should Be Interdependence Day

July 4, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Independence Day (USA).

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

An Independence Day poem about the interdependence of nations:

Indeed, this should be interdependence day.

No nation can lay claim to independence.

Despite the myth of sovereignty, we are

Entangled in a web of greed and need,

Poised upon the lip of life's destruction.

Eventually, pain will have its way,

Nor will we fail forever our descendants.

Death comes singing anthems from afar,

Even as each victim is a seed

Now blowing in the wind of our redemption.

Come, then, for the Earth will have its say,

Eloquent on the subject of dependence.

Divided, we have not the strength to bar

A nation from its exercise of greed.

Yet as one world, we can avoid extinction.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/indeed.html. For more Independence Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Independence Day (USA)

7/1: Justice Now Means Food, Health, Habitation

7/2: Indeed, from Whom or What Are Rights Derived

7/3: Justice Is a Collection Agency

7/4: Indeed, This Should Be Interdependence Day

Justice Is a Collection Agency

July 3, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Independence Day (USA).

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

An Independence Day poem arguing for a government role in the redistribution of wealth:

Justice is a collection agency,

Uniting what one pays with what one owes.

Let the government collect the fee

Yearly, rebalancing the highs and lows.

Free markets are efficient but not just:

One after all must beat the competition.

Unions, taxes, fines can temper lust,

Restoring rivals to the same condition.

To be sure, the rich still have it made;

However, the poor’s bill must first be paid.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/justi5.html. For more Independence Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Independence Day (USA)

7/1: Justice Now Means Food, Health, Habitation

7/2: Indeed, from Whom or What Are Rights Derived

7/3: Justice Is a Collection Agency