Identity Requires Memory

 

A poem for Independence Day (USA) about the importance of knowing one’s nation’s history:

 

Identity requires memory.

No less than people, nations must recall

Days past, lest they wander witlessly,

Erased each moment, guided by the wind,

Pushed by lusts no wisdom can forestall.

Events are facts that one cannot rescind,

Nor can forgetting consequence forego.

Despite one's wish, the past is not behind:

Even now, it works its wayward will,

Nor can we understand what we don't know.

Contain your cavils, then, and snide thoughts still,

Even as we celebrate our story,

Described with all the clarity and skill

A scholar can sustain in heart and mind,

Yielding what for now is history.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

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

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/identi.html. For more poems for Independence Day (USA), go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/july4thpoems.html .

 

Everything We Give Was Never Ours

 A poem for Eid al-Adha about what it means to give a gift:

 

Everything we give was never ours.

It was a gift, as was life itself.

Dependent as we are, like fragile flowers,

An unborn soul is seed upon God's shelf.

Let yourself then meditate on this:

A sacrifice can be no sacrifice.

Death leaves one with nothing one might miss.

How can one think one owns what has no price,

As every gift one gives is given thrice.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Pachabelly. By Huma Huma. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ever14.html. For more Eid al-Adha poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/eidaladhapoems.html .

Fear Not, for the World Is Full of Beauty

 A Father’s Day poem to the almost-father of several miscarriages.

 

Fear not, for the world is full of beauty,

And love’s the song that brings it all to life.

Those who don’t have children often might

Have other songs to sing of joyful duty.

Even so, one ought to feel the longing

Reverberating through one’s canyon walls

‘Mid all the other lost dreams one recalls,

So that one’s sorrows might enrich one’s singing.

Days like these remind one of the loss,

Allow one to feel pain without remorse,

Yielding to the loveliness of being.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: No. 2 Remembering Her. By Esther Abrami. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fearn3.html .  For more Father’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fathersdaypoems.html .

There Is No Lasting Love Without Compassion

 

A wedding poem about the need for compassion in marriage:

 

There is no lasting love without compassion,

Requisite for generosity,

As all good lovers know they ought to be:

Caring partners even in their passion.

Yet some might view their spouse as a possession,

Judging them as a commodity,

One that fits, or not, some fantasy,

Here to serve some self-absorbed obsession.

No marriage can succeed without both lovers,

As each must give far more than they will get

To get far more than they might ever give.

How else might lovers reach, beyond all others,

A greater whole, beyond joy or regret,

Not least beyond self, as we were meant to live.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

Audio and Video Music: Just Stay. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/theri3.html. For more wedding poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/weddingpoems.html .

Make My Sorrow Pride

 

A Memorial Day poem in which a mourner begs for relief from pain:

 

Make my sorrow pride.

Enter me with light.

Mourning turns to morning,

Or so I would believe.

Reach me with your tide.

Inundate this blight.

Awaken me with longing,

Lest I live to grieve.

 

Deaf, dumb, blind inside,

All I am is night,

Yet too frail to leave.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: If You Close Your Eyes I’m Still with You. By Late Night Feeler. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/makem2.html. For more Memorial Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/memorialdaypoems.html .

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 .