To Ellen, Lady of Such Grace

July 21, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is anniversaries.

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

An anniversary poem in praise of the grace and wisdom of a wife:

To Ellen, lady of such grace

As well might grace a husband's life;

Whose gentle Quattrocento face

Conveys the wisdom of the wife.

As well might grace a husband's life,

She has a way with words, whose wit

Conveys the wisdom of the wife

Obliquely, bit by subtle bit.

She has a way with words, whose wit

Works patiently, as each dawn comes

Obliquely, bit by subtle bit,

Till even fools can see the sun.

Works patiently, as each dawn comes

To bring the blind Earth’s gloom to light,

Till even fools can see the sun

Restore the truths long lost to night.

To bring the blind Earth’s gloom to light,

Whose gentle Quattrocento face

Restores the truths long lost to night?

To Ellen: lady of such grace!

© 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/toelle.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

July 20: For You, Let There Be Angels Lost in Song

July 21: To Ellen, Lady of Such Grace

For You, Let There Be Angels Lost in Song

July 20, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is anniversaries.

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

A fourth anniversary poem about angels coming to help celebrate the occasion:

For you, let there be angels lost in song,

Oceanic choirs in your sky,

Unified in joy, an ethereal throng

Rejoicing in your earthly love on high!

Yes, angels flock to those on Earth who love,

Each drawn to love like butterflies to bloom,

A fluttering host of pure delight, who prove

Romantically inclined, though we assume

Still baffled by some things they know not of.

© 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/fory12.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries

July 20: For You, Let There Be Angels Lost in Song

There Is Within My Happenstance

July 19, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Bastille Day, or the national holiday of France, which is celebrated on July 14^th.

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

A humorous political poem about the guilty innocence of liberals:

There is within my happenstance

An unshed innocence,

Not rare among those buttercups

Whose sun is fueled by shame.

No matter what the circumstance,

My heart must hie me hence,

For all the quince of Nottingham

Is squandered in my name.

Extant there are no photographs

Of who or what I am,

For they were in the sandwiches

We ate one moonlit night.

Instead my mirror must reveal

The marmaladed ham

That lies atop the tabletop

And stuffs itself with light.

Ay me! What might I do that might

Undo my unfelt pain?

My life must gorge on life, and yet

I sorrow for my mice.

Ay me! The cherubs hunger as

My goods are shipped by plane.

And I must dance with polar bears

Across the shrinking ice.

© 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/quince.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

July 13: Darfur/Darfur

July 14: Obama/Osama

July 15: The Last Depression Led to Holocaust

July 16: Shake Up the World! It Could Use Some Shaking

July 17: Richard Is a Restless Dreamer

July 18: The Triumph of the Victor

July 19: There Is Within My Happenstance

The Triumph of the Victor

July 18, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Bastille Day, or the national holiday of France, which is celebrated on July 14^th.

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

A political poem about the irony that the moment of victory often contains the seeds of the victor’s eventual defeat:

The triumph of the victor means

The losses have begun.

To be well-nigh invincible

Is to be on the run.

Power is a current that

Goes swiftly out to sea.

One's will is wind on grass; one's only

Hope is to be free.

Safety lies in wisdom more than

Strength since strength must die,

While wisdom rides the waves beneath which

Sunken victors lie.

© 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/thetri.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

July 13: Darfur/Darfur

July 14: Obama/Osama

July 15: The Last Depression Led to Holocaust

July 16: Shake Up the World! It Could Use Some Shaking

July 17: Richard Is a Restless Dreamer

July 18: The Triumph of the Victor

Richard Is a Restless Dreamer

July 17, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Bastille Day, or the national holiday of France, which is celebrated on July 14^th.

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

A political name poem about a scientist whose skills are devoted to the practical realization of his dreams:

Richard is a restless dreamer,

Idealist with a practical bent,

Careful carer, benevolent schemer,

Heart and mind with one intent,

A skilled, professional redeemer,

Reason to love’s frontiers sent,

Delivering grace with science blent.

© 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/richa2.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

July 13: Darfur/Darfur

July 14: Obama/Osama

July 15: The Last Depression Led to Holocaust

July 16: Shake Up the World! ItCould Use Some Shaking

July 17: Richard Is a Restless Dreamer

Shake Up the World! It Could Use Some Shaking

July 16, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Bastille Day, or the national holiday of France, which is celebrated on July 14^th.

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

A political number poem about the need to raise one’s voice against injustice:

Shake up the world! It could use some shaking.

Every moment waits for your commands.

Voices were created to be heard;

Enduring wrong politely is absurd;

Nor can one hope for change without demands.

There is no justice simply for the taking,

Yet some would silent raise their righteous hands.

The birthplace of the whirlwind is the word,

Wind that shapes the contours of the land,

One wind of many wills, the world remaking.

© 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/shakeu.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

July 13: Darfur/Darfur

July 14: Obama/Osama

July 15: The Last Depression Led to Holocaust

July 16: Shake Up the World! It Could Use Some Shaking

The Last Depression Led to Holocaust

July 15, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Bastille Day, or the national holiday of France, which is celebrated on July 14^th.

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

A political poem about where one must begin one’s battle against hatred:

The last depression led to holocaust.

The rationale for massacre is fear.

Long before it starts, the game is lost.

The neighborhood of hate is always here.

The best place to begin is one's own heart.

There the mad dogs pull against their chains,

Lusting to tear some stranger's throat apart,

Rage that only love and patience tames.

Each heart becomes a lantern in a crowd.

Yes, people see according to your light,

As you by theirs -- but speak of love aloud,

Lest other voices drown the coming night.

And do not turn away from victims' cries,

For evil's spooked by nothing more than eyes.

© 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/thelas.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

July 13: Darfur/Darfur

July 14: Obama/Osama

July 15: The Last Depression Led to Holocaust