Graduation Means that Now You Must

November 4, 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 Election Day (USA), which takes place this year on Nov. 3.

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

A political graduation poem about the burden of student debt:

Graduation means that now you must
Repay the debt so innocently incurred,
Although the final tally seems absurd,
Demanding more than you consider just.
Unwillingly you had to make your bed
And now must lie in it, though we are all
The better for your choice. We like to call
Individual what is instead
Our common good. We feed on your success,
Nor can we be unscathed by your distress.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/grad11.html. For more political poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics
November 2: Election Day Seems Sometimes like Which Crook
November 3: Elections Bring Regime Change
November 4: Graduation Means that Now You Must

Elections Bring Regime Change

November 3, 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 Election Day (USA), which takes place this year on Nov. 3.

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

An Election Day poem about the importance of a peaceful change of power:

Elections bring regime change, even though
Little seems to change but the regimes.
Energetic leaders come and go.
Change is far more daunting than it seems.
This is due to what elections do:
In counting votes, they sum not some but all,
Of which no cook could make a tasty stew,
Nor architect an arch that would not fall.
Demands of opposite intent demand
A compromise constrained, complex, and bland.
Yet such will ever violence forestall.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/elect2.html. For more Election Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/electiondaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics
November 2: Election Day Seems Sometimes like Which Crook
November 3: Elections Bring Regime Change

Election Day Seems Sometimes like Which Crook

November 2, 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 Election Day (USA), which takes place this year on Nov. 3.

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

An Election Day poem about the importance of voting even when both sides seem corrupt:

Election Day seems sometimes like which crook
Leaves just a slightly less repulsive taste.
Each day the ugly, money-sucking waste
Creates an urge to give 'em all the hook.
There are, of course, many who have died
In defense of this most precious right,
Opening their bodies to the night,
Not bred to have their dignity denied.
Do, then, for their sake more closely look
At each contestant, though with Lysol laced.
Your vote affirms your power to decide.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/electi.html. For more Election Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/electiondaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics
November 2: Election Day Seems Sometimes like Which Crook

Holiness Is Never Wholly Holy

November 1, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Halloween, is the spirit.

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

A Halloween poem about the questionable distinction between the holy and the profane:

Holiness is never wholly holy.
All is all - an angel or a flea,
Loved and deeply cherished equally,
Loved as though all love embraced them only.
One is just as sacred as a gnat,
Well loved, just as well loved as a thief,
Existing far beyond one's joy or grief,
Embraced by love that dances past belief.
Nor does one need more than the thought of that.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/holin3.html. For more Halloween poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/halloweenpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Spirit
October 26: Hear, O Spirits! The World, the World Is One
October 27: Here Is So Much More than Here
October 28: Hell Does Not Admit Those Who Are Loved
October 29: Have a Little Sunshine in Your Heart
October 30: Hopes Last Longer than Their Disappointments
October 31: Have a Tiny Tidbit of Despair
November 1: Holiness Is Never Wholly Holy

Have a Tiny Tidbit of Despair

October 31, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Halloween, is the spirit.

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

A Halloween poem about the need to taste despair if one is to know the truth of life:

Have a tiny tidbit of despair,
A little taste of what most must consume,
Letting go the blessings you assume,
Letting go the myth that life is fair.
Oh, savor it, that bitter, bitty bite,
Worthy of your easy empathy!
Endure this brutal world vicariously,
Even for a moment, that you might
Not be so thoroughly ignorant of life.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/havea5.html. For more Halloween poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/halloweenpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Spirit
October 26: Hear, O Spirits! The World, the World Is One
October 27: Here Is So Much More than Here
October 28: Hell Does Not Admit Those Who Are Loved
October 29: Have a Little Sunshine in Your Heart
October 30: Hopes Last Longer than Their Disappointments
October 31: Have a Tiny Tidbit of Despair

Hopes Last Longer than Their Disappointments

October 30, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Halloween, is the spirit.

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

A Halloween poem about how life can be breathed back into abandoned hopes:

Hopes last longer than their disappointments.
An abandoned hope can haunt its house for years,
Longing to breathe life into its spirit,
Longing for the salience of its youth.
O phantom hopes, do not despair! For someone
Will soon take up the gauntlet of your dreams,
Embrace you as the child of their passion,
Embody you in the flesh of their desire.
Nor will a kind and just hope ever die.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/hopesl.html. For more Halloween poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/halloweenpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Spirit
October 26: Hear, O Spirits! The World, the World Is One
October 27: Here Is So Much More than Here
October 28: Hell Does Not Admit Those Who Are Loved
October 29: Have a Little Sunshine in Your Heart
October 30: Hopes Last Longer than Their Disappointments

Have a Little Sunshine in Your Heart

October 29, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Halloween, is the spirit.

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

A Halloween poem about the immortality of one’s inner light:

Have a little sunshine in your heart,
A source of inner light amid the darkness,
Light enough to light your understanding,
Light enough to light your happiness.
One is like a firefly at evening,
Wisp of light within the gathering darkness,
Every now and then a blink of beauty
Enduring as a touch of timeless grace.
Nor will that grace within you have an end.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/havea4.html. For more Halloween poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/halloweenpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Spirit
October 26: Hear, O Spirits! The World, the World Is One
October 27: Here Is So Much More than Here
October 28: Hell Does Not Admit Those Who Are Loved
October 29: Have a Little Sunshine in Your Heart