Tough and Lovely

July 16, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is being in one’s twenties.

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

A number poem about the emotional effect of seeing one’s child grow into an adult:

Tough and lovely, to see my child gain

What personality she will assume,

Each bit and gesture worked on year by year,

No stopping till the character is clear.

Tough and lovely, to see the child remain

Yet underneath the mask that is her doom.

Only slowly does the child disappear,

Not needing me to kiss away all pain,

Entering alone the darkened room.

© 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/toug21.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Being in One’s Twenties

7/15: Twenty Is a Bud That’s Finally Flowered

7/16: Tough and Lovely

Twenty Is a Bud That's Finally Flowered

July 15, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is being in one’s twenties.

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

A number poem about the insights of a twenty year old.

Twenty is a bud that's finally flowered,

Wide open to the sunshine and the rain.

Each day's a moment of eternal truth

New rendered through the perfect eyes of youth,

The light by which the blossom is empowered,

Yielding clarities one would sustain.

© 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/20c.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Being in One’s Twenties

7/15: Twenty Is a Bud That’s Finally Flowered

Because Injustice Is the Match

July 14, 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 today, July 14.

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

A Bastille Day poem about the cycle of injustice, revolution, dictatorship, and restoration that seems to distinguish every modern revolution:

Because injustice is the match,

And revolution is the fire;

Silence, the enabling wind;

Tyranny, the funeral pyre:

In time it ends in restoration;

Less injustice, just a little;

Life returns, just slightly better;

Each Estate is forced to settle.

Does this small mini-step repay

A generation drowned in blood?

Yet so goes progress through the cycle.

© 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/becau3.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

7/10: Because the Root of Poverty Is Injustice

7/11: Blessed Are Those Who Compromise Their Visions

7/12: Beyond the Reign of Terror

7/13: Good and Honest People Can Do Evil

7/14: Because Injustice Is the Match

Good and Honest People Can Do Evil

July 13, 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 will be celebrated tomorrow, July 14.

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

A Bastille Day poem about how in politics good intentions can lead to evil actions.

Good and honest people can do evil

As just ends can inspire brutal means.

In politics, a saint can be a devil,

Calculating what might be the level

Of suffering the greater good redeems.

Good and honest people can do evil

As well-honed ideologies give ample

Cause to murder others for one’s dreams.

In politics, a saint can be a devil,

Romantic as the idealistic rebel,

Tyrannical as truth splits at the seams.

Good and honest people can do evil,

Reducing life’s complexities to simple

Slogans that are best conveyed by screams.

In politics, a saint can be a devil,

More saint, more devil, a hammer on an anvil

That shapes the willing faithful into fiends..

Good and honest people can do evil.

In politics, a saint can be a devil.

© 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/goodan.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

7/10: Because the Root of Poverty Is Injustice

7/11: Blessed Are Those Who Compromise Their Visions

7/12: Beyond the Reign of Terror

7/13: Good and Honest People Can Do Evil

Beyond the Reign of Terror

July 12, 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 hope that continues to survive brutality:

Beyond the Reign of Terror,

Beyond the tyranny,

A silence lingers just offshore

Like fog upon the sea.

Is it death? Or is it

A future yet unknown?

Or is it in one’s flooded heart

A longing all one’s own?

It is eternal hope,

A peace that has no when,

Hanging just offshore, beyond

One’s brutal mise-en-scène.

© 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/beyond.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

7/10: Because the Root of Poverty Is Injustice

7/11: Blessed Are Those Who Compromise Their Visions

7/12: Beyond the Reign of Terror

Blessed Are Those Who Compromise Their Visions

July 11, 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 virtues of compromise:

Blessed are those who compromise their visions

And share their power with the other side,

Substituting faith for fratricide,

Trading principles for joint decisions.

Instead of blood, their battles will yield laws,

Less just, perhaps, than those they would have wanted,

Less brutal than the crimes that would have haunted

Each of them and undermined their cause.

Democracy requires compromise

And sometimes letting fools outvote the wise.

Yet some prefer the righteousness of wars.

© 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/bless6.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

7/10: Because the Root of Poverty Is Injustice

7/11: Blessed Are Those Who Compromise Their Visions

Because the Root of Poverty Is Injustice

July 10, 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 arguing against the assumption that poverty is inevitable:

Because the root of poverty is injustice,

And there is wealth enough for all to have

Sustenance and shelter, and the promise

That all will prosper if they work and save;

Indeed, because those then have fewer children,

Leaving each more room in which to grow,

Leveraging lives through education,

Elevating lives by what they know:

Do not succumb to comfortable despair,

And think the poor, like flies, are simply there,

Yielding what might be to what seems so.

© 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/becau2.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

7/10: Because the Root of Poverty Is Injustice