Eleven Years Is Not So Long a Time

October 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 eleventh anniversary poem about how love conquers time:

Eleven years is not so long a time.
Life goes on, and who knows what comes next?
Each moment writes its own persuasive text,
Visions in which will and fate align.
Even so, love can conquer time,
Not bound by what might come before or next.
Years, not moments, write the lyric text,
Enduring as two lives for life align.
Although in time one can't know what comes next,
Relying on the moment's reasoned text,
Sing of love, that will the stars align.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/11year.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries
October 19: Happy Twenty-First Anniversary
October 20: Here in the Midst of Happiness
October 21: Eleven Years Is Not So Long a Time

Here in the Midst of Happiness

October 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 sixth anniversary poem about pausing to recognize one’s blessings:

Here in the midst of happiness,
A moment's pause: How might
People know when they are blessed,
Pressured day and night?
Years pass like some vast waterfall,
So quickly yet so slowly,
In droplets that are grace writ small,
Xxx's for you only,
The moments that you will recall -
Here, now, beautiful.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/herein.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries
October 19: Happy Twenty-First Anniversary
October 20: Here in the Midst of Happiness

Happy Twenty-First Anniversary

October 19, 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 twenty-first anniversary poem about the play of will and fate in making one of two:

Happy twenty-first anniversary!
A time both to reflect and celebrate.
Perhaps the years turn choices into fate.
Perhaps one chooses daily what to be.
Yet though at every moment one is free,
Time and love join forces to create
Worlds in which we live, a passionate
Embrace that shapes the will's topography.
Now you are a part of who I am,
The wheel within the wheel I call myself,
Yearning with my yearning, as two branches
From one tree reach together for the sun.
Intimacy floods the inner dam,
Reaches out across the inner gulf,
Self-healing through a love that sings and dances,
Turning two time travelers into one.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/happ95.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries
October 19: Happy Twenty-First Anniversary

Fighting Back

October 18, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, is Native American history.

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

A poem for Indigenous Peoples’ Day adapted from the Constitution of the Indian Federation covering Native American tribes in Southern California in 1922:

FIGHTING BACK

Adapted from the Constitution of the Indian Federation (Tribes of Southern California), ca. 1922.

The name of this Indian organization shall be
THE MISSION INDIAN FEDERATION.

Its objects are to secure by legislation or otherwise
All the rights and benefits belonging to each Indian
Both singly and collectively;
To protect them against unjust laws, rules and regulations;
To guard the interests of each member
Against unjust and illegal treatment.

"HUMAN RIGHTS AND HOME RULE"
Shall be the slogan adopted
By the Mission Indian Federation.

The Mission Indian Federation
Shall be non-political and non-sectarian,
The discussion of which
Is most stringently forbidden
In the Councils and Conventions.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fighti.html. For more poems about indigenous peoples, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/indigenouspeoplesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Native American History
October 12: Treaties Are Made to Be Broken
October 13: To Shelter the American Character from Lasting Dishonor
October 14: A Graphic Illustration
October 15: Indian Babarities
October 16: Cultural Genocide
October 17: From the Great White Father to His Children
October 18: Fighting Back

From the Great White Father to His Children

October 17, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, is Native American history.

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

A poem for Indigenous Peoples’ Day adapted from a letter from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to all Native Americans in 1923 concerning their behavior:

FROM THE GREAT WHITE FATHER TO HIS CHILDREN

Adapted from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to All Indians, February 24, 1923:

Now,
What I want you to think about
Very seriously
Is that you must first of all
Try to make your own living,
Which you cannot do
Unless you work faithfully
And take care
Of what comes from your labor,
And go to dances or other meetings
Only when your home work
Will not suffer by it.

I do not want to deprive you
Of decent amusements
Or occasional feast days,
But you should not do evil
Or foolish things
Or take so much time
For these occasions.

No good comes
From your "give-away" custom
At dances
And it should be stopped.
It is not right
To torture your bodies
Or to handle poisonous snakes
In your ceremonies.
All such extreme things
Are wrong
And should be put aside
And forgotten.

You do yourselves
And your families
Great injustice
When at dances
You give away money
And other property,
Perhaps clothing,
A cow, a horse,
Or a team and wagon,
And then,
After an absence of several days,
Go home to find everything
Going to waste,
And yourselves
With less to work with
Than you had before.

I could issue an order
Against these useless
And harmful performances,
But I would much rather
You give them up
Of your own free will.
And, therefore,
I ask you now
In this letter
To do so.

If, at the end of one year,
The reports which I receive
Show that you are doing
As requested,
I shall be very glad,
For I will know
That you are making progress
In other
And more important ways.

But if the reports show
That you reject this plea,
Then some other course
Will have to be taken.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fromt2.html. For more poems about indigenous peoples, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/indigenouspeoplesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Native American History
October 12: Treaties Are Made to Be Broken
October 13: To Shelter the American Character from Lasting Dishonor
October 14: A Graphic Illustration
October 15: Indian Babarities
October 16: Cultural Genocide
October 17: From the Great White Father to His Children

Cultural Genocide

October 16, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, is Native American history.

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

A poem for Indigenous Peoples’ Day adapted from a letter from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the superintendent of a Native American reservation in 1902 and the reply:

CULTURAL GENOCIDE

Adapted from the "Long-hair" letter from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Superintendent, Round Valley, California, 1/11/1902; and the reply by the Superintendent, 6/21/1902:

The wearing of long hair
By the male population
Of your agency
Is not in keeping
With the advancement they are making,
Or will soon be expected to make,
In civilization.

You are therefore directed
To induce your male Indians
To cut their hair.
With your Indian employees,
And those Indians
Who draw rations and supplies,
It should be an easy matter,
As non-compliance
With this order
May be made a reason
For discharge
Or for withholding
Rations and supplies.

The returned students
Who do not comply voluntarily
Should be dealt with summarily.
Employment, supplies, etc.,
Should be withdrawn
Until they do comply.
And if they become obstreperous
About the matter,
A short confinement
In the guard house
At hard labor,
With shorn hair,
Should furnish a cure.

The Reply:

Sir: Referring to your letter
Of January eleventh,
There are only two or three
Very old male Indians
Who wear long hair,
And I have not thought it best
To take severe measures with them,
As there is no disposition
On the part of any others
To follow their example.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/cultur.html. For more poems about indigenous peoples, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/indigenouspeoplesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Native American History
October 12: Treaties Are Made to Be Broken
October 13: To Shelter the American Character from Lasting Dishonor
October 14: A Graphic Illustration
October 15: Indian Babarities
October 16: Cultural Genocide

Indian Babarities

October 15, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, is Native American history.

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

A poem for Indigenous Peoples’ Day describing a massacre of Native Americans in 1867:

INDIAN BARBARITIES

Adapted from Conditions of the Indian Tribes: A Report of the Joint Special Committee of Congress (The Doolittle Report): pp. 41-42, January 26, 1867.

"When the attack was made,
The Indians flocked around the camp
Of the head chief,
And he ran out his flag.
He had a large American flag
Which was presented to him, I think,
By Colonel Greenwood some years ago.
And under this American flag
He had likewise a small white flag."

Was it light, so that the flags
Could be plainly seen?

"Yes, they could be plainly seen."

How many were killed?

"I think about seventy or eighty,
Including men, women, and children;
Twenty-five or thirty of them were warriors, probably,
And the rest women, children, boys, and old men."

Were any Indian barbarities practiced?

"The worst I have ever seen.
All manner of depredations
Were inflicted on their persons;
They were scalped, their brains knocked out;
The men used their knives,
Ripped open women,
Clubbed little children,
Knocked them in the head with their guns,
Beat their brains out,
Mutilated their bodies
In every sense of the word."

Do you know which troops those were
That actually did this work;
Whether they were the hundred-day men
Who came from Denver,
Or the regular First Colorado regiment?

"I am not able to say;
They were all in a body together,
Between eight hundred and one thousand men,
I took them to be.
I saw some of the First Colorado regiment
Committing some very bad acts there
On the persons of the Indians;
And I likewise saw
Some of the one-hundred-day men
In the same kind of business."

When they came back to the Indian village,
Were any of the Indians there,
Men, women, or children,
Left?

"No, sir; they were all gone
Except a few children
Who came into our camp
An hour after we had all returned."

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/india4.html. For more poems about indigenous peoples, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/indigenouspeoplesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Native American History
October 12: Treaties Are Made to Be Broken
October 13: To Shelter the American Character from Lasting Dishonor
October 14: A Graphic Illustration
October 15: Indian Babarities