As You Hike Through Public Land

 A poem for Arbor Day about the value of uncut trees:

As you hike through public land
Reserved for public good,
Be aware that public air
Outbids the price of wood.
Remember life is brief, is fragile,
Dangling in a breeze,
As you breathe in oxygen
You owe to uncut trees.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Audio and Video Music: White River. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/asyouh.html. For more Arbor Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/arbordaypoems.html . 

Estimated Wait Time Is Forever

 

A poem for Eid al-Fitr, which occurs at the end of Ramadan, about faith as a journey rather than a visitation.

Estimated wait time is forever.
In faith, The Moment neither comes nor goes.
Does one dress one's thoughts in what seems clever,
Allowing for a frequent change of clothes?
Let love translate for your timeless soul.
Faith's a journey, not a visitation.
If one would risk a purpose and a role,
Then one should live by love's interpretation,
Rendering each partial person whole.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Audio and Video Music: Wander. By Emmit Fenn. Music free to use at YouTube.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/estima.html. For more poems for Ramadan, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ramadanpoems.html .

 THIRTY-FOUR'S DEVOTED TO A DREAM

A Philosophical Number Poem for Someone Who Has Devoted His Life to Social Change

Thirty-four’s devoted to a dream,
Hard at work each day to make it real.
If what-is-not’s not easy to conceive,
Requiring an acolyte to weave
Tapestries that catch its look and feel,
Yet such labors are what make it gleam.

For art must open what faith tends to seal,
Open to make flesh what one believes,
Unafraid to be, and not just mean,
Rich precisely where ideas are lean.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Audio and Video Music: Allégro. By Emmit Fenn. Music free to use at YouTube.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/34sdev.html. For more poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

Here Are Festive Flowers for Your Room

 An Easter friendship poem about the limits of friendship:

Here are festive flowers for your room,
A spray of springtime on your bare night table:
Placed upon a place within your view,
Placed where best to light your harried heart.
Yet my blossoms can’t dispel your gloom,
Even were they many times more able.
All that gifts from loving friends can do
Sings just one unaccompanied inner part.
The music cannot come from aught but you,
Evangelist beside the empty tomb,
Rejoicing in the grace of life and art.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Forever Yours. By Wayne Jones. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/herear.html. For more Easter poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/easterpoems.html .

Seventy-Three Suspends Her Animation

Dear Reader,

I have decided to resurrect my former blog, Poem of the Day, as Poem of the Week, publishing each week a different poem from my website, Poems for Free (https://www.poemsforfree.com).

This week, the Poem of the Week is a number poem for a woman who both embraces her feminine role and at the same time dreams of one less self-sacrificing:

Seventy-three suspends her animation,
Eloping for a moment with a dream,
Vividly devouring each sensation,
Each image that means more than it can mean.
Nor can her love reality redeem.
Time moves on, and she comes back to life,
Yearning for the woman in the wife.

The love of husband, children, grandchildren,
Has been a garden long and faithfully tended,
Resulting in a peaceful, well-earned beauty,
Enduring pleasure she would not want ended,
Embrace she chooses out of more than duty.

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

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

Given the Fragility of Life

May 23, 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 get-well-soon poem for someone who has recently come through surgery:

Given the fragility of life,
Each of us remains a miracle,
Though new emerged from some bright sea of pain.
When every second feels just like a knife
Entering the soft flesh of the will,
Life whispers soon we will be well again.
Linger, then, along the edge of shade;
Soon enough you will be in the sun,
Open-armed, erect, and unafraid.
Old wounds remind us of fierce battles won,
Nor will our patient faith not be repaid.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/givent.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
May 23: Given the Fragility of Life

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. This will be the last Poem of the Day email.

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)
Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/poems_for_free)
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

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!

© by Nicholas Gordon

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)
Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/poems_for_free)
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