Take Me to Your Leader

November 8, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Election Day (USA), which takes place this year on Nov. 3.

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

A political poem about inter-galactic imperialism:

Take me to your leader
And tell her I am here
For mutual enrichment.
You have no cause for fear.

Your planet contains minerals
Of which we are in need,
For which we will pay handsomely.
We come not out of greed.

We come for trade and friendship
From the Emperor
Who rules the peaceful universe,
The Pax Galactica.

And since we have an army
Far more advanced than yours,
We offer our assistance
To end your endless wars

And make for our investments
A canopy of peace.
It is in both our interests
That all these conflicts cease.

We offer you a culture
Of worlds beyond your sight
To bring you out of darkness
And lift you into light;

To civilize your values,
Enlighten your beliefs,
Disable your diseases,
Ameliorate your griefs ...

Oh, yes, those are my warships
Circling your sky.
Mere precaution - I don't know
What some of you might try.

Rest assured, we come in peace --
The planet of our birth?
Oh, long ago, so long ago,
It was the planet Earth.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/takeme.html. For more political poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Politics
November 2: Election Day Seems Sometimes like Which Crook
November 3: Elections Bring Regime Change
November 4: Graduation Means that Now You Must
November 5: Peace Is Not the Product of Despair
November 6: The Fire of Love
November 7: Terror Must Be Beaten Back by Justice
November 8: Take Me to Your Leader

Terror Must Be Beaten Back by Justice

November 7, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Election Day (USA), which takes place this year on Nov. 3.

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

A political poem about the best way to deal with terror:

Terror must be beaten back by justice.
Evil's antidote must be the good:
Restoring order with both tooth and law,
Restraining passion with both hope and awe,
Opening to all what world we would,
Resolute, reasonable, relentless.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/terror.html. For more political poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Politics
November 2: Election Day Seems Sometimes like Which Crook
November 3: Elections Bring Regime Change
November 4: Graduation Means that Now You Must
November 5: Peace Is Not the Product of Despair
November 6: The Fire of Love
November 7: Terror Must Be Beaten Back by Justice

The Fire of Love

November 6, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Election Day (USA), which takes place this year on Nov. 3.

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

A political poem about the need in politics for love:

America is ever being born.
Innocence is its identity.
It must be free to dream, or it will die,
And with it, the world's still breaking, anguished heart.

Becoming, becoming, always becoming,
A land that will be far more than has been.
Beginning, beginning, always beginning,
Unwilling to settle for sorrow or sin.

Ought the root of politics be love?
How else might the nation live and prosper?
Every vote should be a vote for love.
Every law should be a law for love.

Loving is a policy
That serves the interest of the State,
For love will always answer love,
While hate can only stir up hate.

How beautiful, the anger at injustice!
Like a torch, it lights our darkened way.
Without it, we are waiting for the wind.
With it, we walk on through moonless nights.

Let us never lose our anger!
Let it be the fire of love!
Burning, yearning, learning, turning,
Moving hearts that would not move.

The limit of the possible
Is not a border wall.
It is, instead, a boundary
Accessible to all.

Let us cross it, you and I,
And build our world anew!
Again, again, closing in
On what is good and true.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thefir.html. For more political poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Politics
November 2: Election Day Seems Sometimes like Which Crook
November 3: Elections Bring Regime Change
November 4: Graduation Means that Now You Must
November 5: Peace Is Not the Product of Despair
November 6: The Fire of Love

Peace Is Not the Product of Despair

November 5, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Election Day (USA), which takes place this year on Nov. 3.

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

A political Passover poem about the need for unused strength to bring about peace:

Peace is not the product of despair.
An army's most invincible least used.
Strength engenders weakness when abused,
Serving best by merely being there.
One conquers in the end by being just,
Vanquishing the conscience with the right.
Each child that's passed over in the night
Restores just one-half bullet's worth of trust.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/peace2.html. For more political poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics
November 2: Election Day Seems Sometimes like Which Crook
November 3: Elections Bring Regime Change
November 4: Graduation Means that Now You Must
November 5: Peace Is Not the Product of Despair

Graduation Means that Now You Must

November 4, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Election Day (USA), which takes place this year on Nov. 3.

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

A political graduation poem about the burden of student debt:

Graduation means that now you must
Repay the debt so innocently incurred,
Although the final tally seems absurd,
Demanding more than you consider just.
Unwillingly you had to make your bed
And now must lie in it, though we are all
The better for your choice. We like to call
Individual what is instead
Our common good. We feed on your success,
Nor can we be unscathed by your distress.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/grad11.html. For more political poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics
November 2: Election Day Seems Sometimes like Which Crook
November 3: Elections Bring Regime Change
November 4: Graduation Means that Now You Must

Elections Bring Regime Change

November 3, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Election Day (USA), which takes place this year on Nov. 3.

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

An Election Day poem about the importance of a peaceful change of power:

Elections bring regime change, even though
Little seems to change but the regimes.
Energetic leaders come and go.
Change is far more daunting than it seems.
This is due to what elections do:
In counting votes, they sum not some but all,
Of which no cook could make a tasty stew,
Nor architect an arch that would not fall.
Demands of opposite intent demand
A compromise constrained, complex, and bland.
Yet such will ever violence forestall.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/elect2.html. For more Election Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/electiondaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics
November 2: Election Day Seems Sometimes like Which Crook
November 3: Elections Bring Regime Change

Election Day Seems Sometimes like Which Crook

November 2, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Election Day (USA), which takes place this year on Nov. 3.

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

An Election Day poem about the importance of voting even when both sides seem corrupt:

Election Day seems sometimes like which crook
Leaves just a slightly less repulsive taste.
Each day the ugly, money-sucking waste
Creates an urge to give 'em all the hook.
There are, of course, many who have died
In defense of this most precious right,
Opening their bodies to the night,
Not bred to have their dignity denied.
Do, then, for their sake more closely look
At each contestant, though with Lysol laced.
Your vote affirms your power to decide.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/electi.html. For more Election Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/electiondaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics
November 2: Election Day Seems Sometimes like Which Crook