Selves Are Quite the Opposite of Souls

March 20, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated on March 17.

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

A St. Patrick’s Day poem about the difference between one’s self and one’s soul:

Selves are quite the opposite of souls,
As what might change is never what must be.
In one we find pure light; the other, coals,
Now burning, now burned out, now memory.
The self is something that can grow and change,
Perhaps love virtue, perhaps descend to sin,
Alive to faith or innerly estranged,
The lonely witness to what one has been.
Remember that the soul is also you,
Is what is, which is eternal love,
Called to love by love you know is true,
Knowing what sheer grace might through you move.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/selves.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 15: Going Home to a Place You’ve Never Been
March 16: So I’m the Patron Saint of Ireland
March 17: So Let It Go, That Mythic Ireland
March 18: So Let Them Be, Who Have Had Sex with Children
March 19: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served
March 20: Selves Are Quite the Opposite of Souls

Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

March 19, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated on March 17.

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

A philosophical St. Patrick’s Day poem about the self as part of a greater whole:

Self becomes less self the more self-served,
As who one is arrives from parts unknown.
Identity is never one's alone,
Nor can one learn unchanged a single word.
Thus the self by nature is a part,
Present in the body of the whole.
A healthy arm or leg is not a goal
That one pursues regardless of the heart.
Remember, then, that one is more or less
In common with the boundaries one draws,
Choosing or not the love that sings and soars,
Knowing or not what brings one happiness.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/selfbe.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 15: Going Home to a Place You’ve Never Been
March 16: So I’m the Patron Saint of Ireland
March 17: So Let It Go, That Mythic Ireland
March 18: So Let Them Be, Who Have Had Sex with Children
March 19: Self Becomes Less Self the More Self-Served

So Let Them Be, Who Have Had Sex with Children

March 18, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated on March 17.

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

A St. Patrick’s Day poem about the greater guilt of those in charge of abusive priests:

So let them be, who have had sex with children!
And turn Your rage on those who turned their eyes,
Intending to defend Your church with lies!
Nor were they ever fit for Your dominion!
These hypocrites are far worse than the poor
Polluted souls they moved from place to place,
Avid to avoid undue disgrace,
Trafficking in silence to be sure.
Remember them when You return! For they,
Instead of proper penance, yet remain
Cardinals, bishops, princes in Your name,
Knowing well what price they ought to pay!

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/solett.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 15: Going Home to a Place You’ve Never Been
March 16: So I’m the Patron Saint of Ireland
March 17: So Let It Go, That Mythic Ireland
March 18: So Let Them Be, Who Have Had Sex with Children

So Let It Go, That Mythic Ireland

March 17, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated on March 17.

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

A St. Patrick’s Day poem about the changing ethnic composition of Ireland:

So let it go, that mythic Ireland!
Treasure the past, but let it, let it go!
Perhaps it was at one time wholly our land --
All of it -- but that was long ago.
The time when states were nations is now ending.
Races know no borders; people move
In search of life, their clothes and colors blending
Cultures that must now their presence prove.
Know, then, that not politics, but art,
'Mid neighbors various in faith and race,
Sustains a people's history and heart,
Dependent more on ritual than place.
As on St. Patrick's Day we march in green,
Yet we must let go the blood-drenched dream.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/soleti.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 15: Going Home to a Place You’ve Never Been
March 16: So I’m the Patron Saint of Ireland
March 17: So Let It Go, That Mythic Ireland

So I'm the Patron Saint of Ireland

March 16, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated on March 17.

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

A St. Patrick’s Day poem about St. Patrick as a former Englishman:

So I'm the patron saint of Ireland!
Then let me be for it a sign of peace.
Perhaps few know that I was born in England
And always thought of England as my home.
There was no England then, of course, nor Ireland.
Regardless, here's an irony that should
Inhabit those possessed by racial hatred:
Come to love even those who wrong you,
Knowing I was an English slave in Ireland.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/soimth.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 15: Going Home to a Place You’ve Never Been
March 16: So I’m the Patron Saint of Ireland

Going Home to a Place You've Never Been

March 15, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated on March 17.

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

A St. Patrick’s Day poem about the emotional return to Ireland of the child of Irish immigrants:

Going home to a place you've never been,
To long-loved landscapes that you've never seen,
To where your soul was sculpted by a wind
Your parents' parents left still young behind.

How long do such ancestral memories last?
When, if ever, can the past be past?
You do not know, but only know right now
This place has gripped your heart like home somehow.

Your plane descends above green hills where once
Your people for millennia learned to dance
The dance you learned third hand, yet dancing still,
You land, weeping hard against your will.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/goingh.html. For more St. Patrick’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/stpatricksdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: St. Patrick’s Day.
March 15: Going Home to a Place You’ve Never Been

Change Comes Slowly, like a Dawn

March 14, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem about the difficulty of social change:

Change comes slowly, like a dawn.
Hours seem like generations.
As night gives way, we too soon mourn,
Not equal to our aspirations.
Good takes wisdom, wit, and will,
Enduring through a life of ill.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/chang4.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Philosophy.
March 8: A Life in Six Movements
March 9: Life Can Be Quite Ravenous
March 10: The Sun Was Salmon on Water
March 11: For Every Disappointment There’s a Dream
March 12: Shadows Aren’t Visible at Night
March 13: Ultimately, Everyone Is Single
March 14: Change Comes Slowly, like a Dawn