Adrian Knows Well the Unsaid Rules

October 12, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is ethical behavior in honor of Yom Kippur, which begins at sunset on Oct. 8 and ends at nightfall on Oct. 9.

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

A philosophical name poem about choosing to shape one’s behavior according to ethical rules:

Adrian knows well the unsaid rules

Demanding that one be what one is not.

Restraining the fierce appetites within,

Interning the insurgents bent on sin,

As he matures, he learns to love his lot,

No longer heeding the laments of fools.

© 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/adrian.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Ethical Behavior

10/7: You Cannot Think the Book of Life Will Close

10/8: You Find but Little Solace in Success

10/9: You Wish to Live a Long and Happy Life

10/10: If Life Could Be a Court and We Be Tried

10/11: Justin Walks Along His Own Thin Line

10/12: Adrian Knows Well the Unsaid Rules

Justin Walks Along His Own Thin Line

October 11, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is ethical behavior in honor of Yom Kippur, which begins at sunset on Oct. 8 and ends at nightfall on Oct. 9.

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

A philosophical name poem about how one might hide one’s sinful thoughts and feelings from oneself:

Justin walks along his own thin line.

Unselfishly he weighs each consequence.

Subtly bending rays that might reveal

Thoughts he could not knowingly conceal,

Instinctively he guards his innocence,

Not feeling what he fears is not benign.

© 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/justin.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Ethical Behavior

10/7: You Cannot Think the Book of Life Will Close

10/8: You Find but Little Solace in Success

10/9: You Wish to Live a Long and Happy Life

10/10: If Life Could Be a Court and We Be Tried

10/11: Justin Walks Along His Own Thin Line

If Life Could Be a Court and We Be Tried

October 10, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is ethical behavior in honor of Yom Kippur, which begins at sunset on Oct. 8 and ends at nightfall on Oct. 9.

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

A philosophical poem about guilt and the need to be loved:

If life could be a court and we be tried,

Our guilt could be determined with precision.

Judges would due punishment provide

And close our cases with some just decision.

But rarely is our guilt so well defined.

Underground it rages unrestrained:

Above, defenses carefully aligned;

Below, no faintest trace of them retained.

For those who have such tragedies to bear

And cannot ever know their share of blame,

There is no court but their own hearts, and there

They are condemned to self-inflicted shame.

Such tender souls are fittest to be moved

By knowing that like all souls they are loved.

© 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/iflife.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Ethical Behavior

10/7: You Cannot Think the Book of Life Will Close

10/8: You Find but Little Solace in Success

10/9: You Wish to Live a Long and Happy Life

10/10: If Life Could Be a Court and We Be Tried

You Wish to Live a Long and Healthy Life

October 9, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is ethical behavior in honor of Yom Kippur, which begins at sunset on Oct. 8 and ends at nightfall on Oct. 9.

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

A poem for Yom Kippur about the relationship between the individual and the community:

You wish to live a long and healthy life

On friendly terms with everyone around you,

Married to a lovely, loving wife,

Knee deep in the good causes that surround you.

In truth, however, you're not in control,

Planted where you are by wind, not will,

Placed where sun and shade might shape your soul,

Ultimately child of the whole,

Repenting for us all, for good or ill.

© 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/youwis.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Ethical Behavior

10/7: You Cannot Think the Book of Life Will Close

10/8: You Find but Little Solace in Success

10/9: You Wish to Live a Long and Happy Life

You Find but Little Solace in Success

October 8, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is ethical behavior in honor of Yom Kippur, which begins at sunset on Oct. 8 and ends at nightfall on Oct. 9.

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

A poem for Yom Kippur about the emptiness of conventional success and the feeling of self-importance that so often comes with it:

You find but little solace in success,

On which you long have hung your self-esteem.

Maybe you expected happiness,

Knowing how the self-important seem.

Instead, you feel a gnawing at the heart,

Perhaps because you know where you've gone wrong,

Purporting to be whole when you are part,

Unable yet to simply sing along,

Restored to worship by the grace of song.

© 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/youfi2.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Ethical Behavior

10/7: You Cannot Think the Book of Life Will Close

10/8: You Find but Little Solace in Success

You Cannot Think the Book of Life Will Close

October 7, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is ethical behavior in honor of Yom Kippur, which begins at sunset on Oct. 8 and ends at nightfall on Oct. 9.

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

A poem for Yom Kippur about the difficulty of true repentance:

You cannot think the Book of Life will close.

Opportunity must seem a right.

Most days contain a trace of paradise,

Kindling the hope that God is nice

Instead of just or loving or pure light.

Prepare for what is not what you propose:

Perhaps you think your prayers will suffice,

Unburdening your heart with hunger slight.

Repentance takes much more than you suppose.

© 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/yomkip.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Ethical Behavior

10/7: You Cannot Think the Book of Life Will Close

Would You Know the Tally of Your Time

October 6, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which began this year at sunset on Sept. 29 and ended on the evening of October 1.

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

A philosophical poem about whether one would really like to know how much evil and good one has done:

Would you know the tally of your time,

The good and bad you’ve caused, the joy and pain?

Or would you not? I know I would not mine,

The number no self-knowledge dare assign,

The weighted roster of the saved and slain.

Would you know the tally of your time?

And would you see that number as a sign

Of your self-worth, a judgment that is plain?

Or would you not? I know I would not mine,

For numbers are like labels that confine

One’s feeling for oneself to pride or shame.

Would you know the tally of your time,

The blunt assessment you cannot refine,

The sum that gives a thousand words one name?

Or would you not? I know I would not mine.

Thank God I can’t! I might my heart resign,

Self-satisfied or full of self-disdain!

Would you know the tally of your time,

Or would you not? I know I would not mine.

© 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/wouldy.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Rosh Hashanah

9/30: Reason Says, of Course, that There’s No Book

10/1: Remember as You Scour Your Soul for Sin

10/2: Repentance Is Quite Different from Regret

10/3: Revelation Strikes You as Absurd

10/4: Revenge Is Often Taken in the Mind

10/5: Ritual Recalls the Revelation

10/6: Would You Know the Tally of Your Time