Could I Have Seen the Consequence

October 14, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day, which are celebrated on Oct. 14.

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

A Columbus Day poem in which Columbus reflects upon the terrible consequences for indigenous people of his discoveries:

Could I have seen the consequence

Of my bold exploration,

Looking back before I left

Upon my life's creation --

Millions genocidally

Butchered, starved, enslaved,

Under laws and governments

Savage, cruel, depraved --

Despite all this, I would have gone,

And new lands found, and new worlds known,

Yet drawn by what I craved.

© 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/could2.html. For more Columbus Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/columbusdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Columbus Day and Indigenous People’s Day

10/14: Could I Have Seen the Consequence

The Roots of Hatred

October 13, 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 the need to love oneself whole – both the good and the evil:

The roots of hatred run so deep

We drink their poison in our sleep.

Deep within or deep below,

The roots run deeper than we know.

Day and night, and night and day

We while the precious time away

Hating, writhing, seething, ranting,

All the while new hate seeds planting.

In the mind and in the heart,

In the whole and in each part,

The anger clenches flesh and soul,

Taking a titanic toll.

O love, the wind that winnows well

The hate that holds the heart in hell,

Come and kiss the urge to kill,

And storms abate, and tempests still.

Love comes alone to those who call,

And love themselves along with all,

Love the roots and love the tree,

And know that you are part of me;

And know that I am part of you,

And you become the things I do,

And what I hate is what I am,

Both hungry wolf and slaughtered lamb.

So do not hate the hate within,

But love the love, and love the sin,

Love the beast and love the prey,

For both one word of wonder say.

© 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/theroo.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

10/13: The Roots of Hatred

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