Poem of the Week

Saturday, May 22, 2021

O Lord, Help Me Be a Burden

May 22, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A religious poem about someone who prays for the strength to be a burden on loved ones:

O Lord, help me be a burden!
My mother and my sister do their duty,
But I can see impatience in their eyes.
Help me, please, endure until my time.

My mother and my sister do their duty,
Loving me as righteousness demands.
Help me, please, endure until my time,
And midst my pain to live with ample grace.

Loving me as righteousness demands,
They teach me how to lean upon your love,
And midst my pain to live with ample grace.
O lift me up upon your unspent shoulders!

They teach me how to lean upon your love,
But I can see impatience in their eyes.
O lift me up upon your unspent shoulders!
O Lord, help me be a burden!

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/olord.html. For more poems about health, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/healthpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Health.
May 17: Perhaps You Think that, Yes, You Are an Island
May 18: I Wear My Mask for You
May 19: Zzzoom
May 20: After the Virus
Mat 21: I Pray for You and Wish I Could Do More
May 22: O Lord, Help Me Be a Burden

Note: Google has decided to discontinue Feedburner, the free service that sends you this daily email. At the age of 80, I have decided that this would be a good time for me to discontinue the Poem of the Day. The last Poem of the Day email will be sent out on May 23rd.

I will still be posting a new Poem of the Week each week at my Web site (https://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html), as well as regularly adding new poems, drama, and fiction to the site. And you are welcome to follow me on:
Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/PoemsbyNicholasGordon)
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YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyyixnna5SPO5EIe4IAKkXQ)
and Twitter (https://twitter.com/poemsforfree).

It has been a pleasure sending out, first, the Poem of the Week and later the Poem of the Day for nearly a quarter century. Thank you for being a subscriber and best wishes to you all,

Nick

Thursday, May 20, 2021

I Pray for You and Wish I Could Do More

May 21, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A friendship poem for someone who is suffering from a serious illness far away:

I pray for you and wish I could do more,
But more I cannot do from far away.
Like leaves before the wind we cannot stay,
Ripped dancing, dancing to the forest floor.
I wish I could your ailing health restore
And bring you to the strength of yesterday,
But all we mortal souls can do is pray
That God might alter what we have in store.
The beauty in our fragile life is love,
The only thing that makes the moment matter,
The golden thread that binds us all in light.
I wish, I wish I could your pain remove,
But like a wall the truth my will must shatter,
And so I send my prayers into the night.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/iprayf.html. For more poems about health, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/healthpoems.html.

It has been a pleasure sending out, first, the Poem of the Week and later the Poem of the Day for nearly a quarter century. Thank you for being a subscriber and best wishes to you all,

Nick

After the Virus

May 20, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical health poem for children about whether they might remember the lessons the experience of COVID taught them once the pandemic is over:

After the virus, when we don't wear masks,
Not socially distant, no longer afraid,
When zooming's less frequent, and nobody asks
Were we too close to our friends while we played?

After the virus, when we have a fever,
And we are just sick, in no danger at all,
When we go to movies whenever we like
And go out to a park or a mall:

Will we remember,
O will we remember
How much we need others,
How much we all share?

Will we remember,
O will we remember
That we breed the same germs
And breathe the same air?

After the virus, when we're free to wander
Wherever we like, without so many rules,
When we no longer need to protect one another,
And it's summer vacation that closes our schools:

Will we remember,
O will we remember
The heroes who saved us,
Who kept us alive?

And will we remember,
O will we remember
To live out our lives
With their courage our guide?
With their love as our guide.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/after4.html. For more poems about health, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/healthpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Health.
May 17: Perhaps You Think that, Yes, You Are an Island
May 18: I Wear My Mask for You
May 19: Zzzoom
May 20: After the Virus

It has been a pleasure sending out, first, the Poem of the Week and later the Poem of the Day for nearly a quarter century. Thank you for being a subscriber and best wishes to you all,

Nick

Wednesday, May 19, 2021

ZZZoom

May 19, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A poem for children about zooming for play and school during the COVID pandemic:

After we come home from school,
Here is how we play!
Until this virus goes away,
Here is how we play!

We'll play games and have some fun
While all of us are safe at home,
Zooming! Zooming! Everyone
On a laptop or a phone.

We're learning in a different way.
Zoom is our school.
Until this virus goes away,
This is our new rule:

Playing, learning, having fun
While all of us are safe at home,
Zooming! Zooming! Everyone!
This is how we learn and play:
Z-Z-Z-Zoom!

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/zzzoom.html. For more poems about health, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/healthpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Health.
May 17: Perhaps You Think that, Yes, You Are an Island
May 18: I Wear My Mask for You
May 19: Zzzoom

Note: Google has decided to discontinue Feedburner, the free service that sends you this daily email. At the age of 80, I have decided that would will be a good time for me to discontinue the Poem of the Day. The last Poem of the Day email will be sent out on May 23rd.

It has been a pleasure sending out, first, the Poem of the Week and later the Poem of the Day for nearly a quarter century. Thank you for being a subscriber and best wishes to you all,

Nick

Monday, May 17, 2021

I Wear My Mask for You

May 18, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical health poem for children about the ethics of wearing masks during the COVID pandemic:

I wear my mask for you.
You wear your mask for me.
Together we stay safe,
Together distantly.

I don't breathe on you.
You don't breathe on me.
We watch out for each other.
We act responsibly.

Masks protect the air we share.
Wearing masks means that we care
About what things we do
Might do to others.

Masks make us safer, you and me,
So I act not as I, but we,
Knowing that we're all in this
Together.

I wear my mask for you.
You wear your mask for me.
Together we stay safe,
Together distantly.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/iwearm.html. For more poems about health, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/healthpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Health.
May 17: Perhaps You Think that, Yes, You Are an Island
May 18: I Wear My Mask for You

It has been a pleasure sending out, first, the Poem of the Week and later the Poem of the Day for nearly a quarter century. Thank you for being a subscriber and best wishes to you all,

Nick

Perhaps You Think that, Yes, You Are an Island

May 17, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A philosophical poem about the ethical implications of a pandemic:

Perhaps you think that, yes, you are an island,
As are your family, tribe, religion, nation.
No doubt you've rarely thought a child in Greenland
Deserved equivalent consideration.
Everyone, of course, can host a virus,
Maybe be the site of a mutation,
Illustrating well that all are us,
Cause for casuistic contemplation.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/perh11.html. For more poems about health, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/healthpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Health.
May 17: Perhaps You Think that, Yes, You Are an Island

It has been a pleasure sending out, first, the Poem of the Week and later the Poem of the Day for nearly a quarter century. Thank you for being a subscriber and best wishes to you all,

Nick

Sunday, May 16, 2021

Seventy-Three Refocuses on Love

May 16, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A religious number poem about a love that blesses all equally at any age:

Seventy-three refocuses on love
Even as she now must live alone.
Very little waits behind the door.
Every day is like the day before.
Nestled in her heart are sleeves of stone.
Time hangs like a fog no sun will soon remove.
Yet there is much that makes her yearn for more.

To be is to be loved and blessed with grace,
However one might live or soon might die.
Revelations come like words long known,
Each an invitation to embrace
Ecstasy that needs no reason why.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/73.html. For more poems about religion, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/religiouspoems.html.

This week’s theme: Religion.
May 10: The Wave Without Becomes a Wave Within
May11: How Might One Untie the Knot
May 12: Each Fast Is like a Cleansing of the Soul
May 13: Eid Is Bittersweet
May 14: Little Do You Know How Much You Love Me
May15: Recently I Dreamed I Talked to You
May 16: Seventy-Three Refocuses on Love

It has been a pleasure sending out, first, the Poem of the Week and later the Poem of the Day for nearly a quarter century. Thank you for being a subscriber and best wishes to you all,

Nick

Saturday, May 22, 2021

O Lord, Help Me Be a Burden

Thursday, May 20, 2021

I Pray for You and Wish I Could Do More

After the Virus

Wednesday, May 19, 2021

ZZZoom

Monday, May 17, 2021

I Wear My Mask for You

Perhaps You Think that, Yes, You Are an Island

Sunday, May 16, 2021

Seventy-Three Refocuses on Love

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