Sister Margaret's Been Here Many Years

 A name poem for a much-loved Catholic school teacher.

 

Sister Margaret's been here many years
In service to the children and the Lord.
She’s one lovely note within a chord
Too vast and beautiful for human ears.
Even those who've carved out bright careers
Remember long and fondly one who gave
More love to them than their young hearts could save,
A river sweeping through their childhood tears;
Remember, too, the beauty of a life
Given as an act of charity,
All of it, not one desire held back.
Ruled by need, they pause in harmony,
Even in the midst of daily strife,
To see in her a passion that they lack.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Elegy. By Asher Fulero. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree. com/margar.html. For more poems about teachers, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/teacherspoems.html .

Lately, I've Been Having Vivid Dreams

 A psychological poem about the vivid dream of a mother with a brain tumor:

 

"Lately I've been having vivid dreams,"
You said. "Perhaps it is the drugs, or perhaps
The tumor presses hard against my brain.
In any case, I've seen some lovely things,
Things I have not thought of many years,
Come back now with such yearning, such delight,
That I could weep for joy to be alive.
I dreamed we were at Grandma Rifka's house,
Your father, I, and Rifka in the dark,
Silent for the things we could not say.
The moon invaded, and cold beams like ice
Came in among us, crystallized the air,
And like cold spokes transfixed us where we were.
We could not move nor speak, though within me
There feebly stirred a wish to set things right.
The frozen air held us, ice like stars.
Then you came in, waved hello, smiled,
A large guitar slung over your left shoulder,
On your right a child just emerged from sleep,
And I was happy. The air grew warm,
Light came from you and danced among the stars.
The moonbeams melted, once again we talked,
We said the little things that cover darkness,
You laughed and life flowed in us once again.
In a moment I was weeping, you asked why.
I said I didn't know. Was it relief?
No, it was the beauty of the moment
As it poured burning, dying through my heart."

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Arms of Heaven. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/vivid.html. For more psychological poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

Have No Fear, for Love Is All Around You

 A Mother’s Day poem from a parent to a child who is now also a mother:

 

Have no fear, for love is all around you.
All come helpless from a common womb.
Perhaps you do not know that love surrounds you.
Perhaps you do not know that you're in bloom.
Yet mothers, too, are children, ever loved,
Minded by the living and the dead,
Old enough to give, as time has proved,
The need no less, though time and tears have fled.|
Have faith that love's a mystic tide that flows
Equally to and from the heart,
Returning, turning as it comes and goes,
'Mid moon and moon your sea, your song, your art.
Sing, then, of this moment of your giving,
Deep within the ebb and flow of living.
All you feel is what was felt for you,
Yearning your own yearning will renew.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Angel’s Dream. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/haveno.html. For more Mother’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/mothersdaypoems.html .

I Cannot Tell You How Much I Have Loved You

 

A poem from a parent to an adult child about the beauty of parental love:

I cannot tell you how much I have loved you,
Nor give you an accounting of my joy,
Nor share with you the hopes with which I've held you,
Nor shadow forth the dreams I would employ.
You cannot know the pleasure that you gave me,
Nor grasp the grace in which I've spent my days,
Nor understand the standing that would save me
Whenever darkness met my morning gaze.
You've been to me a moment everlasting,
Though lasting but the moment of us all,
And given me a glimpse of what, in passing,
Must pass for what awaits beyond the wall.
Such love I wish for you as I have known,
But that must come from children of your own.

© 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/icann3.html. For more poems to children, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/childrenpoems.html .

Palpably, You Are in This Room

 A Passover poem about the presence of God at the Seder:

 Palpably, You are in this room,
A presence just as certain as our own,
Singing with us -- family friend, well-known --
Someone, not just something we assume.
One can know You only intimately.
Vast as You are, You fit into our home.
Every tick of life we're not alone,
Rejoicing in a love we feel and see.

© by Nicholas Gordon

 Audio and Video Music: Dream of the Ancestor. By Asher Fulero. Music free to use at YouTube.

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/palpab.html. For more Passover poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/passoverpoems.html . 

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 .