My Heart Is like a Symphony

 A poem, never sent, from a mother to a child whom she was forced to surrender:

 

My heart is like a symphony
That sings of only pain.
Of all that makes a life worthwhile,
Only you remain.

Only in the thought of you
Safe and cared for well
Can I find happiness within
My self-inflicted hell.

Only in my love for you
Is there sufficient grace
For me to want to live at all
In this forsaken place.

Ah, God! Were life not beautiful
And love not full of light,
I could, perhaps, embrace the rage
Of an embittered night.

But as it is, I cannot help
But hope for what might be:
That though I gave you up, you might
Someday, somehow love me.

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: E Minor Prelude. By Frederic Chopin. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/myhea.html. For more poems to children, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/childrenpoems.html .

Beware of Inequalities Too Wide

 

A Bastille Day poem about the dangers of allowing inequalities between classes to grow too wide:

 

Beware of inequalities too wide

And chasms that cannot be bridged by dreams.

Societies fray first along the seams,

Then rip apart, exposing rot inside.

In chaos hopes for liberty abide;

Life in its Edenic newness gleams;

Longing is more brutal than it seems;

Ecstatic demons 'cross the wastelands glide.

Do, then, recall the day of the Bastille

As one whose burst of glory would reveal

Yearnings that would stain the turning tide.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Bittersweet. By SYBS. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bewar2.html. For more Bastille Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .

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 .