Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Thirty8

August 24, 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 choosing wisely what is most meaningful.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thirty knows quite well what binds one fast,
Having both received and given love.
In what one chooses is what one will be,
Regretting much, of course, but hopefully
The person one's best instincts will approve,
Yearning always for the things that last.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/30h.html. For more psychological poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Psychology
August 21: Meredith
August 23: Fifty-One3
August 24: Thirty8

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Fifty-One3

August 23, 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 embrace multiple selves.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Fifty-one reviews her long-past choices,
Interested in knowing who she is.
Fortune is the child of self in ways
That one can neither understand nor phrase,
Yet must accept in searches such as this.

One is, of course, a choir of many voices,
Not just one, one might condemn or praise,
Embracing all, redemptive and remiss.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/51c.html. For more psychological poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Psychology
August 21: Meredith
August 23: Fifty-One3

Monday, August 21, 2017

Family Is a Rescue Squad in Waiting

August 22, 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 difficulties and rewards of family.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Family is a rescue squad in waiting.
One knows there'll be an answer to one's call.
Rest assured there is sufficient love
To water well the wastelands of us all.
Yet simple truths can sometimes bear restating.

Fear not, then, what fortune might befall,
Or what regrets show no signs of abating.
Understand the long-term love that proves
Resilient through the roughhouse of relating.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/family.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

Sunday, August 20, 2017

Meredith

August 21, 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 name and psychological poem about an unfortunately common modern type.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Meredith has never been marooned,
Even though it sometimes feels like that.
Relationships have dwindled to one cat,
Even as her inbox has ballooned.
Deep into the night she crunches numbers,
Intelligent, industrious, alone,
Talking only business on the phone,
Hard at rest but briefly when she slumbers.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Psychology
August 21: Meredith

Saturday, August 19, 2017

Twenty-Two Years Later They Were Dead

August 20, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is about two former spouses who never managed to get over their divorce.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Twenty-two years later they were dead
And nothing was resolved, nor would it be.
Life, as is its wont, had gone ahead,
But both of them, though freed, were never free.
Both remarried, loved, fell ill, and died,
Buried separately, with space reserved
For those who mourned them most, the two outside
What once was home but could not be preserved.
What bitterness and blame, forgiveness, rage,
Guilt, shame, fury, impotence, and sorrow
Sloshed against the walls of each's cage,
A storm that never yielded to tomorrow.
How beautiful and sad, the love of youth
That, though it could not last, outlasts the truth.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/22year.html. For more divorce poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/divorcepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Divorce
August 20: Twenty-Two Years Later They Were Dead

Friday, August 18, 2017

There Is No Mountain Higher than the Wall

August 19, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a divorce poem reaching out to a former spouse for friendship.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is no mountain higher than the wall
That comes between two people once in love.
But time can tear a mountain down with tears
As former lovers slowly move towards touch.

There is no happiness in hard, cold anger
Twisted like a girder in one's way.
The sun and rain can manage to grow flowers
Across the bleakest crust of lava plain.

So we, too, I hope, can manage friendship
Upon the battlefield of past defeat.
I would not want to lose our years of loving
To moments caught for good in bitter light.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/ther15.html. For more divorce poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/divorcepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Divorce
August 19: There Is No Mountain Higher than the Wall

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Love Undoes Its Heritage Quite Slowly

August 18, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

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

Today’s poem is a divorce poem about how long it takes to leave past love behind.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Love undoes its heritage quite slowly,
Spinning like a planet through its dust.
Sometimes it feels like hatred, sometimes mourning,
Sometimes pain long paralyzed by rust.

Sometimes shame of past humiliation
Wrings the heart with hands inured to toil,
And once again some drops of unspent fury
Spill upon the dry and barren soil.

Ay, me! When will it end? The seasoned sorrow
Of unforgiven trespasses of old?
No matter new love blossoming! There's somewhere
A place within untenanted and cold.

© by Nicholas Gordon

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

This week’s theme: Divorce
August 18: Love Undoes Its Heritage Quite Slowly