Giving Gives Far More than We Intend

September 2, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is sacrifice, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 2 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is about the grace of giving.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Giving gives far more than we intend.

In everything we do is what we are,

Vastly different than we comprehend,

Infinite as any quark or star.

No one ever loves for some clear end,

Gripped by grace that breaks beyond the bar.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/giving.html. For more poems about charity, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/charitypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

August 28: Thirty-One5

August 29: Forty-Three4

August 30: Thirty-Eight8

August 31: Allen

September 1: Forty-Three5

September 2: Giving Gives Far More than We Intend

Forty-Three5

September 1, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is sacrifice, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 2 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a number poem about how parental sacrifice changes one.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forty-three is mainly now a father,

Offering himself to others' needs.

Remember that such love can give no quarter,

Taking one where obligation leads,

Yielding up a joy that breaks and bleeds.

To love is to become oneself another,

Heeding new hopes as the old recede,

Repurposing one’s self to serve some other,

Embracing what one’s former self concedes,

Ever mounted on quixotic steeds.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/43e.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

August 28: Thirty-One5

August 29: Forty-Three4

August 30: Thirty-Eight8

August 31: Allen

September 1: Forty-Three5

Allen2

August 31, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is sacrifice, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 2 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a name poem about someone for whom others will need to sacrifice.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Allen sees the future far too clearly:

Life in debt to those for whom he cares.

Living thus dependent hurts severely,

Even though he knows they love him dearly,

Needing his strength more than he needs theirs.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/allen2.html. For more poems about people with disabilities, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/disabilitiespoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

August 28: Thirty-One5

August 29: Forty-Three4

August 30: Thirty-Eight8

August 31: Allen

Thirty-Eight8

August 30, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is sacrifice, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 2 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a number poem about a hand surgeon who sacrifices the health of her hands in order to heal the hands of others.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirty-eight is skilled at healing hands,

Hard at work each day on wrists and fingers.

In her hands are hands, so what she feels

Requires the same tissues that she heals,

The tiny tangles over which she lingers.

Yet her own must leap to her commands.

Ever deaf to her own hands' appeals,

Intent on what each patient probe reveals,

Guiding blades, she puts her wrists through wringers,

Harsh in her devotion and demands,

The toll intense, as she well understands.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/43d.html. For more poems about various professions, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/professionspoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

August 28: Thirty-One5

August 29: Forty-Three4

August 30: Thirty-Eight8

Forty-Three4

August 29, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is sacrifice, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 2 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a number poem about sacrifice when one has children at the same time one’s parents begin to need help.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forty-three sustains his love of life,

Old enough to know what he must do.

Responsibilities have come with age,

The burden and the blessing of this stage,

Yielding joys less pure than those he knew.

There are the distant child and former wife,

Hard truths that no resentment can assuage.

Retired parents soon will need him, too,

Encumbering him on both sides as the view

Encompasses more grace than he can gauge.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/43d.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

August 28: Thirty-One5

August 29: Forty-Three4

Thirty-One5

August 28, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is sacrifice, in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls on September 2 and commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

Today’s poem is a number poem about sacrificing oneself to save the Earth.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirty-one returns the cosmic favor,

Here, like us all, through accidental grace,

Immersed in saving what of life he can,

Reversing the revolt of modern man

That has with reason reverence replaced,

Yielding an ecology few savor.

One hopes to find some meaning in one’s labor,

Not looking for success in one’s brief span

Except to hold one’s world in one’s embrace.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/31e.html. For more political poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

August 28: Thirty-one5

Fruit Is but a Fraction of the Tree

August 27, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is psychology.

Today’s poem is a number and psychological poem about the need to care for oneself if one is to attain higher goals.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fruit is but a fraction of the tree.

One savors it, but knows what makes it sweet.

Remember that the tree is what one tends,

Taking care that it gets light to eat,

Yet rain enough to drink in avidly.

 

So must one tend oneself sufficiently;

In love and joy pursue, or else defeat,

Xerophyte or hydrophyte, one's ends.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/fruiti.html. For more psychological poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Psychology

August 21: Meredith

August 22: Family Is a Rescue Squad in Waiting

August 23: Fifty-One3

August 24: Thirty8

August 25: Thirty-Four6

August 26: Forty-Four5

August 27: Fruit Is but a Fraction of the Tree