Maybe It's a Little Strange that I

January 20, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday is celebrated this year on January 18th.

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

A name poem for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday about changing the name of the holiday to Freedom Day:

Maybe it's a little strange that I
Am now the only one whose day of birth
Remains a holiday. I don't know why
That honor should be mine alone. My worth
Is certainly no more than Washington's,
Nor do I more than Lincoln days deserve.
Let me then suggest a change: Once
Unmoored from my name, let the holiday serve
To honor not the person but the cause,
Healing racial wounds, pursuing justice,
Examining the morals of our mores,
Revisiting the pain of prejudice.
Kings require homage; this king would
Instead be an occasion for remembrance:
Not of me, but of all who fought for good,
Giving “Freedom Day” its proper sense.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/maybe9.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 18: Make of Me a Hero
January 19: Maybe More than Love Was Needed
January 20: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I

Maybe More than Love Was Needed

January 19, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday is celebrated this year on January 18th.

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

A philosophical name poem for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday about the difficulty of making one’s dream a reality:

Maybe more than love was needed.
All my love was not enough.
Reason is but rarely heeded.
Talk means little at the trough.
Icons look good on the wall.
Nothing changes but the names.
Love is merely protocol.
Undiluted fear remains.
The life is fast, the changes slow.
Hope must be its own reward.
Eventually, the undertow
Returns, returns towards times untoward.
Kings build castles in the sand.
Infinity awaits the tide.
None can settle on the strand.
Grace must live with fratricide.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/maybem.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 18: Make of Me a Hero
January 19: Maybe More than Love Was Needed

Make of Me a Hero

January 18, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday is celebrated this year on January 18th.

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

A political name poem for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday comparing his days as an icon to his days as an activist:

Make of me a hero, but I was
A failure in what mattered most to me.
Remember well the ill that sainthood does,
Taking holiness for victory.
I think we are as far away as ever,
Not from equal laws but equal lives.
Little has been done to make life better,
Unless you like the shift to guns from knives.
The icon of my face is now a mask
Hiding the destruction of the poor.
Each day is worse for millions than the last.
Raging unregarded is a war.
Know, then, though our president might be black,
I would march again, could I come back,
No icon, but a loving, peaceful scourge,
Gathering strength where race and class converge.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/makeo2.html. For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 18: Make of Me a Hero

Clara Sings with Undiminished Passion

January 17, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A name poem for an elderly woman who continues to sing with undiminished passion:

Clara sings with undiminished passion,
Leaning all her strength into the wind.
A soul need not such lifelong pleasures ration,
Relishing what grace she still can fashion,
A labor that she would not leave behind.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/connor.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Song
January 11: Everyone Finds Comfort in a Song
January 12: For You, May Every Moment Sing
January 13: Sing of Dreams, Those Blueprints of the Future
January 14: Silence Never Was a Long-Term Option
January 15: There Is No Threnody for Utter Darkness
January 16: Connor Sings a Classic Irish Tune
January 17: Clara Sings with Undiminished Passion

Connor Sings a Classic Irish Tune

January 16, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical name poem about the full range of emotion within the ecstatic joy of beauty:

Connor sings a classic Irish tune,
Open to the wild western wind.
Neither sentiment nor well-worn words
Need keep him from the ecstasy of birds,
Overwhelmed by beauty, brute and blind,
Reserved for those who bleed, as from a wound.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/connor.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Song
January 11: Everyone Finds Comfort in a Song
January 12: For You, May Every Moment Sing
January 13: Sing of Dreams, Those Blueprints of the Future
January 14: Silence Never Was a Long-Term Option
January 15: There Is No Threnody for Utter Darkness
January 16: Connor Sings a Classic Irish Tune

There Is No Threnody for Utter Darkness

January 15, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem to a deceased loved one about not wanting to let go:

There is no threnody for utter darkness,
Nor dirge for nothingness, nor song for silence.
I sing to you in all your piercing presence.
You are not gone, but haunting in your nearness.
My pain is unrelenting in its starkness,
Unmerciful. Your ever-present absence
Becomes the heart of me, my grieving essence,
As I hold you in the shadow of your stillness.
Ah, my darling! I'll not let you go
Though years pass through the chamber of my sorrow
And memory alight upon my will.
Sweet winds may through my open windows blow,
Yet I will sing to you upon the morrow
And dance with you across the sunlit sill.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/there7.html. For more poems about death, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/deathpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Song
January 11: Everyone Finds Comfort in a Song
January 12: For You, May Every Moment Sing
January 13: Sing of Dreams, Those Blueprints of the Future
January 14: Silence Never Was a Long-Term Option
January 15: There Is No Threnody for Utter Darkness

Silence Never Was a Long-Term Option

January 14, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A political number poem for someone who uses song to follow the family tradition of political activism:

Silence never was a long-term option,
Even in the years not fit for song.
Vested in your heart a legacy
Endures of a humane morality,
Not bound to faith or tribe, but to a long
Tradition of family in the ranks of reason,
Years and generations deep and strong.

Then sing, sing of love and peace with passion,
With all the beauty, wisdom, clarity
One voice can yield to the winds of right and wrong.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/silen3.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Song
January 11: Everyone Finds Comfort in a Song
January 12: For You, May Every Moment Sing
January 13: Sing of Dreams, Those Blueprints of the Future
January 14: Silence Never Was a Long-Term Option