Labor Is a Blessing and a Curse

 

A Labor Day poem about the dignity of labor:

 

Labor is a blessing and a curse,
As one must work to live and live to work.
Better jobs to get up for or worse,
On the whole, with none you'd go berserk.
Remember, then, that dignity requires
Doing, working, laboring -- a role
As giver, as attendant to desires
You recognize within some common soul.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Maryandra’s Waltz. By Jesse Gallagher. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/labori.html. For more Labor Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/labordaypoems.html .

Movement Comes Most Often Without Motion

 

A psychological poem about unconscious change:

 

Movement comes most often without motion.
Incremental thaws can peel a rock.
Years wash away the stubbornest emotion,
While silence can the rustiest thought unlock.
There are magic whispers quietly in mourning
That soothe what we will never know as pain,
And songs that come upon us without warning,
Undoing all the buttons that remain.
Our skin is quite a permeable border
Across which strangers freely come and go,
Subversive to our phantom sense of order
Yet never touching what we think we know.
Thus without motion do we silent move
Unknowing, until suddenly we love.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

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

 

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

There Is a Joy that Banishes All Reason

 

A poem about the difficulty of freeing oneself from an addiction:

 

There is a joy that banishes all reason,
An ecstasy so vast it has no shore,
A craving that devours all decision,
A lust for nothingness that lusts for more.
There are angels in pursuit of pain
Who take Satanic pride in degradation,
Who'll drag you down the hill and back again
Hosanna-ing your sweet humiliation.
Just like a fire fanned by a hot, dry wind,
Or like a flood that sweeps away all will,
This wall of pleasure leaves no one behind,
No sign of life where all one loves lies still.
So does the soul in anguish hate the joy
That soothes the hate that does the soul destroy.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Chariots of War. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/addict.html. For more poems about addiction, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/alcoholismaddictionpoems.html .

Clearly, There Can Be No Better News

 

A congratulations poem on the birth of a child:

 

Clearly, there could be no better news.
Of life and love, now there will be more.
Nor can we guess what grace we have in store,
Granted but imaginary views.
Rejoice in the creation of a soul,
A universe again emerged from darkness,
There being nothing, then a veiled vastness,
Unknowable, infinite, and whole.
Let there be again that bolt of light,
Again the wonder and the mystery,
The being that no cause could cause to be,
Incandescent day from utter night!
O children of desire, what have you done?
New-made a universe, another one,
Shard of One too luminous to see.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

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

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/clear2.html. For more congratulations poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/congratulationspoems.html .

August

 

A calendar poem for August:

 

August starts to shade a bit towards shade,
Upon the cusp of full tide and retreat,
Grace, poised upon a turning point of time,
Unwilling to welcome what it can't decline,
Sweet season no foreboding can defeat.
Though evenings earlier begin to fade.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Please. By Wayne Jones. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/august.html. For more calendar poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/calendarpoems.html .

Farewell, My Friend and Confidante

 

A goodbye poem to a friend who is going away:

 

Farewell, my friend and confidante!
As you go, so must I
Resume alone the well-worn path
Each soul must travel by.
Wend where you will, my wanderer,
Even as you stay
Long treasured in my lonely heart,
Loved well, though far away.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Pouring Out. By Asher Fulero. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/farewe.html. For more goodbye poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/goodbyefarewellpoems.html .

For You the Earth Must Be a Greener Green

 

A love and number poem wishing a loved one every gift of grace:

 

For you the Earth must be a greener green;
Orange buds must burst with greater glory;
Rivers must be pure, light full of grace,
Time unfold a more enchanting story;
Years must shape a spirit more serene.

To you the birds must sing with more delight;
Hyacinths must pour forth sweeter scent;
Rain must wear more gently, storms retrace
Each devastated path, and harm repent,
Each turbulence turn calm, and sorrow right.

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

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

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/greene.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .