Before Love, That Jolting Lilt

February 18, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14^th.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem about the slow and painful journey into love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Before love, that jolting lilt

East of roses, in perturbed darkness,

Missing the eternal circumstance,

Yearning still, again, for that exploratory tilt.

Vainly would I fly into your heart

Afire, burning, consumed, expended.

Love is not an ending; nor does it end

Easily: becomes pith, becomes seed, starts

Needing, kneading, mid-desperation,

The long climb out of loneliness, turning

In hope, in anguish, in foolish expectation.

No two are joined except in painful learning:

Each frightened lesion closed for restoration.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/lilt.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 12: Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You

February 13: Be My Valentine, for I

February 14: Be My Valentine: What Does That Mean

February 15: Blessings Are the Things We Take for Granted

February 16: Before I Ask Y’all, Please Understand

February 17: Before I Knew You, I Had Always Loved You

February 18: Before Love, That Jolting Lilt

Before I Knew You, I Had Always Loved You

February 17, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14^th.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem to a lover who has been long dreamed of.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Before I knew you, I had always loved you,

Even as I dreamed of whom I'd love.

My inner picture was a portrait of you

Years before your heart my heart would move.

Vistas of enchantment are but rarely

As we find them in reality.

Love with you is what I dreamed, but really,

Eden as no dream could ever be.

Nor is this the magic of the moment,

The proper costume for the holiday.

In words like these one finds the winnowed ferment,

Not merely of desire, but of fulfillment,

Else lost amid the chaff along the way.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/befor3.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 12: Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You

February 13: Be My Valentine, for I

February 14: Be My Valentine: What Does That Mean

February 15: Blessings Are the Things We Take for Granted

February 16: Before I Ask Y’all, Please Understand

February 17: Before I Knew You, I Had Always Loved You

Before I Ask Y'All, Please Understand

February 16, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14^th.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem Southern style.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Before I ask y'all, please understand,

Even though I come from way down South,

My heart is more loquacious than my mouth,

Yearning like a wave for your smooth sand.

Very few down here will show their hand,

Aching like a riverbed for rain,

Lying like a platitude in pain,

Each chili inside, outside baked beans bland.

Now here down South it ain't right to demand

The things you're dying for, but you real fine,

In a voice like preachers set to dine,

Nicely say, "Mind if I trouble you, Ma'am," -

Easy like - "to be my Valentine?"

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/befori.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 12: Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You

February 13: Be My Valentine, for I

February 14: Be My Valentine: What Does That Mean

February 15: Blessings Are the Things We Take for Granted

February 16: Before I Ask Y’all, Please Understand

Blessings Are the Things We Take for Granted

February 15, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14^th.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem about how we tend to take our blessings for granted.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Blessings are the things we take for granted.

Each holiday's a light that helps us see.

Most know the Earth is utterly enchanted

Yet walk through life and love mechanically.

Valentine’s Day is love’s well-timed ablution,

A ritual bath in sweet reality.

Love brings us the gift of absolution,

Enveloping our guilt in innocence.

No touch inspires so swift a revolution,

Translating lust-filled longings into sense.

In your love's a blessing I will sing,

Needing just your joy for recompense,

Embracing words that make the heart take wing.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/bless.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 12: Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You

February 13: Be My Valentine, for I

February 14: Be My Valentine: What Does That Mean

February 15: Blessings Are the Things We Take for Granted

Be My Valentine: What Does That Mean

February 14, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated today, February 14^th.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem about transcending the loneliness of life through love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Be my Valentine: What does that mean?

Each of us might walk through life alone,

More lonely than a long-forgotten poem,

Yearning for a face we’ve never seen.

Valentines awake us from that dream,

Are like a sunrise on a world of stone,

Letting us be more than on our own,

Embracing us with love, that life redeems.

No way but through loving might we give

The freedom of our being to another.

In such a mutual sacrifice we live

Needing, trusting those we’re trusted with,

Even as we bind our lives together.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/bemyva.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 12: Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You

February 13: Be My Valentine, for I

February 14: Be My Valentine: What Does That Mean

Be My Valentine, for I

February 13, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14^th.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem about the good that Valentines can do for one another.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Be my Valentine, for I

Each day have thought of you.

My whole life couldn’t manage what

Your ready smile can do,

Vanquishing my loneliness

And making me anew.

Let me be your Valentine

Even as you're mine,

Needing what I have to give

That each might each define

In friendship and in harmony,

Now you, now I the melody,

Each helping each to shine.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/bemyv2.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 12: Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You

February 13: Be My Valentine, for I

Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You

February 12, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14^th.

Today’s poem is a Valentine’s Day poem about how mutual love restores lost innocence.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Vest your love in me, as I in you,

And we will share our bit of time in heaven,

Lost innocence regained through mutual love

Enduring in the hush of our embrace.

Nor will we find in life a greater grace,

The beauty of which will our choices move,

In spite of daily troubles, east towards Eden.

Nor will love be more sweet at dawn than evening,

Ever just as lovely, old or new.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/vestyo.html. For more Valentine’s Day poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/valentinesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Valentine’s Day

February 12: Vest Your Love in Me, as I in You