I Miss Your Laughter, Fun, and Gentleness

June 4, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Memorial Day, which was observed on May 29.

Today’s poem is about a mother’s love for her dead child.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

I miss your laughter, fun, and gentleness.

I miss the things I used to do for you.

I miss the time, now filled with emptiness,

When each day was a stage for something new.

I miss your love, though mine for you remains,

A passion with no outlet to the sea,

A teardrop in a desert, that contains

What's left of my maternal ecstasy.

I miss your presence, like a silent chord

That anchored even solitude in grace.

I miss, for my love's labor, the reward

Of seeing some small pleasure in your face.

All these I miss, and yet they are all here

Within my heart, far more than I can bear.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/imiss7.html. For more poems about death, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/deathpoems.html .

This week's theme: Memorial Day

May 29: Make a Little Time for Public Mourning

May 30: Make My Death a Canticle for Peace

May 31: Maybe Grief Needs Ritual, as Music

June 1: Maybe It Was Worth It, Maybe Not

June 2: Maybe There's a Good Excuse for Fighting

June 3: Memories Are All That I Have Left

June 4: I Miss Your Laughter, Fun, and Gentleness

Memories Are All That I Have Left

June 3, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Memorial Day, which was observed on May 29.

Today’s poem is a Memorial Day poem about the inadequacy of memories.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Memories are all that I have left.

Each becomes a well-worn photograph.

Missing is the warmth, the touch, the heft

Of life, the smile, the reassuring laugh.

Real people change, they grow, relate, unfold.

In time we share the adventures of their lives

As they marry, have kids, change jobs, grow old,

Loving us -- their parents, husbands, wives.

Dead people are alive in us, but they

Are not within themselves. No love revives

Your love, which I once cherished day-to-day.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/memor2.html. For more Memorial Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/memorialdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Memorial Day

May 29: Make a Little Time for Public Mourning

May 30: Make My Death a Canticle for Peace

May 31: Maybe Grief Needs Ritual, as Music

June 1: Maybe It Was Worth It, Maybe Not

June 2: Maybe There’s a Good Excuse for Fighting

June 3: Memories Are All That I Have Left

Maybe There's a Good Excuse for Fighting

June 2, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Memorial Day, which was observed on May 29.

Today’s poem is a Memorial Day poem about the legacy of pain even of righteous wars.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe there's a good excuse for fighting;

Every era has its righteous wars.

Maybe wrongs require bloody righting,

Or self-defense gives warriors just cause.

Remember, though, the legacy of pain,

Intense and passionate, a world of wounds,

Agony unveiled again, again,

Livid in the light of lonely rooms.

Death is a relief, but think of those

Alive with grief, whose loved ones lie in rows,

Youth on youth in neat, well-ordered tombs.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/maybe4.html. For more Memorial Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/memorialdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Memorial Day

May 29: Make a Little Time for Public Mourning

May 30: Make My Death a Canticle for Peace

May 31: Maybe Grief Needs Ritual, as Music

June 1: Maybe It Was Worth It, Maybe Not

June 2: Maybe There’s a Good Excuse for Fighting

Maybe It Was Worth It, Maybe Not

June 1, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Memorial Day, which was observed on May 29.

Today’s poem is a Memorial Day poem weighing the value of a single life against the reasons for war.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe it was worth it, maybe not.

Each life is priceless, yet we paid the price.

Maybe what we gave up you forgot,

Or found some meaning in our sacrifice.

Reason would not choose to let us die

If all the reasons on all sides could be

Against one life forced one whole night to lie,

Letting love run through them honestly.

Deep beneath the normal calculation,

A life is far more precious than a nation.

Yet war survives, and will till all agree.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/maybe8.html. For more Memorial Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/memorialdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Memorial Day

May 29: Make a Little Time for Public Mourning

May 30: Make My Death a Canticle for Peace

May 31: Maybe Grief Needs Ritual, as Music

June 1: Maybe It Was Worth It, Maybe Not

Maybe Grief Needs Ritual, as Music

May 31, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Memorial Day, which was observed on May 29.

Today’s poem is a Memorial Day poem about how ritual can contain the pain of grief.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Maybe grief needs ritual, as music

Embraces rules that turn sound into song.

Maybe if one trusts that one won't lose it,

One can turn away, though grief be strong.

Reserve, then, days for rituals of mourning

In which one may allow the flood of grief

Again to inundate the heart, restoring

Life to deserts thirsting for relief.

Dance depends on choreography

As pain declares its sovereign right to be,

Yet performs with grace restrained and brief.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Memorial Day

May 29: Make a Little Time for Public Mourning

May 30: Make My Death a Canticle for Peace

May 31: Maybe Grief Needs Ritual, as Music

Make My Death a Canticle for Peace

May 30, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Memorial Day, which was observed on May 29.

Today’s poem is a Memorial Day poem asking the mourner to pursue inner harmony and peace.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Make my death a canticle for peace.

Evil has no greater friend than anger,

Making ready converts to its cause.

On me think but of beauty as you pause,

Remembering the service of a stranger

In giving up his life to purchase yours.

All I ask is that you do your part,

Living in the sunlight of my death,

Dancing till your self-sown furies cease.

As you enjoy the gift of every breath,

Yet mourn for me with morning in your heart.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Memorial Day

May 29: Make a Little Time for Public Mourning

May 30: Make My Death a Canticle for Peace

Make a Little Time for Public Mourning

May 29, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Memorial Day, which is observed today, May 29.

Today’s poem is a Memorial Day poem about the need for public mourning.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Make a little time for public mourning,

Easing the harsh pangs of hidden grief.

Maybe ritual tears will bring relief,

Offering a role for one's dark calling.

Remember the utility of sharing,

Inviting cloistered hearts to come outdoors

And dance with us along our barren shores,

Lost within the music of our longing.

Death requires our collaboration

As we render due commemoration,

Yielding sorrow to the common cause.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Memorial Day

May 29: Make a Little Time for Public Mourning