For You It's Been a Steep and Sometimes Tortured

November 11, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem for fifty for someone who has come through a rough period:

For you it's been a steep and sometimes tortured
Incline to this long and lovely view,
Far enough to take a breath or two.
The sturm und drang you've climbed through is now scattered,
Yielding to a calm, translucent blue.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fory16.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Being Fifty
November 9: For You There Can Be No Regret
November 10: For Those Who Would Make Life a Thing of Beauty
November 11: For You It’s Been a Steep and Sometimes Tortured

For Those Who Would Make Life a Thing of Beauty

November 10, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem for fifty for those who have devoted their lives to art:

For those who would make life a thing of beauty,
Invested deeply in some complex art,
Fine tuning the perceptions of the heart,
There is no boundary between joy and duty,
Yielding grace from which one would not part.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/forth3.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Being Fifty
November 9: For You There Can Be No Regret
November 10: For Those Who Would Make Life a Thing of Beauty

For You There Can Be No Regret

November 9, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A number poem for fifty for someone whose actions have been motivated by love:

For you there can be no regret:
In every act there's love.
From this granitic parapet
The view is beautiful, and yet
You yearn, by time's tears moved.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fory15.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Being Fifty
November 9: For You There Can Be No Regret

Take Me to Your Leader

November 8, 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 poem about inter-galactic imperialism:

Take me to your leader
And tell her I am here
For mutual enrichment.
You have no cause for fear.

Your planet contains minerals
Of which we are in need,
For which we will pay handsomely.
We come not out of greed.

We come for trade and friendship
From the Emperor
Who rules the peaceful universe,
The Pax Galactica.

And since we have an army
Far more advanced than yours,
We offer our assistance
To end your endless wars

And make for our investments
A canopy of peace.
It is in both our interests
That all these conflicts cease.

We offer you a culture
Of worlds beyond your sight
To bring you out of darkness
And lift you into light;

To civilize your values,
Enlighten your beliefs,
Disable your diseases,
Ameliorate your griefs ...

Oh, yes, those are my warships
Circling your sky.
Mere precaution - I don't know
What some of you might try.

Rest assured, we come in peace --
The planet of our birth?
Oh, long ago, so long ago,
It was the planet Earth.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/takeme.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
November 5: Peace Is Not the Product of Despair
November 6: The Fire of Love
November 7: Terror Must Be Beaten Back by Justice
November 8: Take Me to Your Leader

Terror Must Be Beaten Back by Justice

November 7, 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 poem about the best way to deal with terror:

Terror must be beaten back by justice.
Evil's antidote must be the good:
Restoring order with both tooth and law,
Restraining passion with both hope and awe,
Opening to all what world we would,
Resolute, reasonable, relentless.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/terror.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
November 5: Peace Is Not the Product of Despair
November 6: The Fire of Love
November 7: Terror Must Be Beaten Back by Justice

The Fire of Love

November 6, 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 poem about the need in politics for love:

America is ever being born.
Innocence is its identity.
It must be free to dream, or it will die,
And with it, the world's still breaking, anguished heart.

Becoming, becoming, always becoming,
A land that will be far more than has been.
Beginning, beginning, always beginning,
Unwilling to settle for sorrow or sin.

Ought the root of politics be love?
How else might the nation live and prosper?
Every vote should be a vote for love.
Every law should be a law for love.

Loving is a policy
That serves the interest of the State,
For love will always answer love,
While hate can only stir up hate.

How beautiful, the anger at injustice!
Like a torch, it lights our darkened way.
Without it, we are waiting for the wind.
With it, we walk on through moonless nights.

Let us never lose our anger!
Let it be the fire of love!
Burning, yearning, learning, turning,
Moving hearts that would not move.

The limit of the possible
Is not a border wall.
It is, instead, a boundary
Accessible to all.

Let us cross it, you and I,
And build our world anew!
Again, again, closing in
On what is good and true.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thefir.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
November 5: Peace Is Not the Product of Despair
November 6: The Fire of Love

Peace Is Not the Product of Despair

November 5, 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 Passover poem about the need for unused strength to bring about peace:

Peace is not the product of despair.
An army's most invincible least used.
Strength engenders weakness when abused,
Serving best by merely being there.
One conquers in the end by being just,
Vanquishing the conscience with the right.
Each child that's passed over in the night
Restores just one-half bullet's worth of trust.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/peace2.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
November 5: Peace Is Not the Product of Despair