You Live in the World You Choose

August 23, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem about how one’s choices shape one’s world:

You live in the world you choose.
Each act is a creation.
The evil and the good
Result in just proportion.

The things you see and know,
What you think and feel,
What you are and do --
Your world is by your choice.

Choose love, and you'll be loved.
Choose hate, and you'll be hated.
Everything you choose,
You'll see in others' 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/youliv.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Free Will
August 17: Freedom Isn’t Simply: Do Your Will
August 18: Fortune Is the Child of Will and Chance
August 19: Fortune Comes in Many Shapes and Guises
August 20: Fortune Is a Favor to Be Earned
August 21: Freedom Is Imprisoned in the Flesh
August 22: There Is No Jail for the Soul
August 23: You Live in the World You Choose

There Is No Jail for the Soul

August 22, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem about the freedom of the soul:

There is no jail for the soul,
Which everywhere is free.
One might as well secure the sky
Or chain the open sea.

The body may in bondage sit
Or on a golden throne.
It matters little to the soul,
Whose fate is all its own.

The soul is sovereign in the self,
And ever free to choose.
Without, one may be forced to crawl;
Within, one can refuse.

Without, one can be flayed alive,
But none can touch the soul
That willing only what is good
Emerges sane and whole.

© 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/ther21.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Free Will
August 17: Freedom Isn’t Simply: Do Your Will
August 18: Fortune Is the Child of Will and Chance
August 19: Fortune Comes in Many Shapes and Guises
August 20: Fortune Is a Favor to Be Earned
August 21: Freedom Is Imprisoned in the Flesh
August 22: There Is No Jail for the Soul

Freedom Is Imprisoned in the Flesh

August 21, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem about freedom and the courage to listen to one’s inner voice:

Freedom is imprisoned in the flesh,
Restricted in the unrestricted soul.
Each must hearken to the inner voice,
Even when there seems but little choice,
Demanding nothing more than being whole,
Opening each gift of time afresh,
Maintaining through one's courage one's control.

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

This week’s theme: Free Will
August 17: Freedom Isn’t Simply: Do Your Will
August 18: Fortune Is the Child of Will and Chance
August 19: Fortune Comes in Many Shapes and Guises
August 20: Fortune Is a Favor to Be Earned
August 21: Freedom Is Imprisoned in the Flesh

Fortune Is a Favor to Be Earned

August 20, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem about the hard fact that fortune owes one nothing:

Fortune is a favor to be earned.
One's will is like a wind on weathered stone.
Remnants of one's dreams lie all around,
The leaves that nourish well the fertile ground,
Uniting the imagined with the known.
Neither slave nor free, nor blessed nor spurned,
Each borrows life and must repay the loan.

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

This week’s theme: Free Will
August 17: Freedom Isn’t Simply: Do Your Will
August 18: Fortune Is the Child of Will and Chance
August 19: Fortune Comes in Many Shapes and Guises
August 20: Fortune Is a Favor to Be Earned

Fortune Comes in Many Shapes and Guises

August 19, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical number poem about the oneness of one’s fortune, good and bad:

Fortune comes in many shapes and guises.
It is by choice what one might never choose.
For those who like to limit their surprises,
There's always less to gain and more to lose.
Years bring heartbreak one cannot refuse.

Even so, one's fortune is oneself.
If choice and chance like lovers bring to birth
Good progeny and bad, there is no gulf
Hovering between one's choice and worth.
There is but one ecology, one Earth.

© 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/fortu2.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Free Will
August 17: Freedom Isn’t Simply: Do Your Will
August 18: Fortune Is the Child of Will and Chance
August 19: Fortune Comes in Many Shapes and Guises

Fortune Is the Child of Will and Chance

August 18, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical number poem about futility of judging one’s fortune:

Fortune is the child of will and chance.
In seeking cause, one finds a mute regression.
For some, life is an incandescent dance,
Though others tend to look at it askance,
Yearning for what's not in their possession.
Nor can one ever know what might have been.
In judging fortune, there is no reward.
Now is what one has to choose or spin,
Ever of one's will the sovereign lord.

© 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/fortu3.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Free Will
August 17: Freedom Isn’t Simply: Do Your Will
August 18: Fortune Is the Child of Will and Chance

Freedom Isn't Simply: Do Your Will

August 17, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical number poem about the paradoxical nature of free will:

Freedom isn’t simply: Do your will.
One wills (or not) within some circumstance,
Restricted by (or not) love, longing, chance,
Training, courage, passion, hunger, skill.
Yet one must freely choose, for good or ill.

Nor can one choose with less constraint than plants,
Intentional as cloves, as daffodils.
Nor can one change the steps that one must dance,
Even as one chooses freely still.

© 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/freed6.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Free Will
August 17: Freedom Isn’t Simply: Do Your Will