Tuesday, May 8, 2018

I See You Working Hard for Me

May 8, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Mother’s Day, which is celebrated on May 13th.

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

A Mother’s Day poem from a daughter of appreciation and understanding:

I see you working hard for me
And wonder what it means:
Whether I will do the same
And give up my own dreams

To offer someone else my world,
A stranger from my womb,
And say: Here, take my life,
So you, not I, can bloom.

I often wonder at the depth
Of that cool sacrifice;
I know it can't be "just because,"
Or simply to be nice.

It is so awesome, I can't think
How I could make that choice,
Except I see something in you
That gives my own heart voice.

I see sometimes a happiness
Amid the stressed-out day
That no one else can hope to know
In any other way.

I feel it when you look at me
And understand sometimes
That things I do, I do for two,
And then your hard life shines.

And when I give you grief, I know
That all the bitter pain
Between a mom and growing child
Is simply like the rain

That alternates with sunny days,
Passion without end,
While underneath is more of life
Than we can comprehend.

And then I know, perhaps, why I
Like you might be so moved
To give my life to someone else,
And know that I have loved.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/iseeu.html. For more Mother’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/mothersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Mother’s Day
5/8: I See You Working Hard for Me

Sunday, May 6, 2018

How Might One Bring to Leaf a Separate Soul

May 7, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Mother’s Day, which is celebrated on May 13th.

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

A Mother’s Day poem comparing a growing child to a tree:

How might one bring to leaf a separate soul,
A seedling with its tree tucked well within,
Placed where rain and sunlight might begin,
Perhaps, to thicken its still slender bole?
Yes, how might one succeed in such a role,
Making sure one’s yang leaves room for yin,
One’s love is nothing seedlings have to win,
The gift that ought not ever be a goal?
How might one allow a tree to grow
Eventually into something all its own,
Reigning over some sweet sunlit glade
‘Mid woods well scattered with its wind-borne seeds?
Sing of the gigantic soul you sow,
Dear sapling many creatures will call home,
As tiny nestlings shelter in its shade
Years from now, when it is thick with leaves.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/howm11.html. For more Mother’s Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/mothersdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Mother’s Day
5/7: How Might One Bring to Leaf a Separate Soul

Time Diminishes What We Require

May 6, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is psychology.

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

A number poem about the the lovely sadness of unsatisfied desire:

Time diminishes what we require.
What pain teaches, we learn perfectly.
Each builds a shore around his sea of gladness,
Not losing hope, nor giving way to madness,
Tougher without, within a little shyer,
Yearning always, but settling reasonably.

Often, though, we turn to lovely sadness,
Not willing to let go what we desire,
Even though we want what cannot be.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/timdim.html. For more poems about psychology, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Psychology
5/6: Time Diminishes What We Require

Saturday, May 5, 2018

Everywhere Are Clocks

May 5, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is psychology.

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

A psychological poem about the clocks that surround us:

Everywhere are clocks:
Timers turn leaves,
Tell birds to take off,
Fish to return home,
Restore desire,
Shift scenery in the night sky.
Lions and fish, crabs and virgins
Move to the music of the moon,
As we, too, dance to symphonies
Unheard. The year is a melody.
We sing our lives in harmony
With singers invisible, magical,
Fellow musicians whom we love
But do not know.
The air is alive with chimes
Which summon us to celebrations
At which we feast on tears.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/clocks.html. For more poems about psychology, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Psychology
5/5: Everywhere Are Clocks

Friday, May 4, 2018

Loose Change

May 4, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is psychology.

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

A psychological poem about the dangers of being too ready to please others:

Loose change (was that lose change?)
Spends easy. Like favors.
Like mornings or afternoons.
Time is easier than touch,
Being there easier than being.
How often, unthinking,
Do I spend a yes
To avoid breaking me?

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/change.html. For more poems about psychology, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Psychology
5/4: Loose Change

Thursday, May 3, 2018

I Doubt You'll Write This Poem for Me

May 3, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is psychology.

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

A poem from the point of view of someone who lacks self-confidence:

I doubt you'll write this poem for me
Since I so rarely get
The things I set my heart upon,
The things I might regret.

So little do I now expect,
So little hope or fear,
I draw a circle round myself
And find my pleasure there.

I do not like my friends, nor do I
Think that they like me.
Their words are hard, like jagged rocks,
Their treacherous eyes like scree.

Alone I read, I dream, I like
My music loud, I wait
For something that will never come,
I fault my faultless fate.

I throw myself upon your will,
Yet know you will not say
The words that show me to myself
And burn my heart away.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/idoubt.html. For more poems about psychology, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Psychology
5/3: I Doubt You’ll Write This Poem for Me

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Forty-Nine3

May 2, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is psychology.

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

A number poem about the pleasures of the imagination:

Forty-nine’s a secret stowaway
On every ship that sails with the wind,
Returning to her satisfying life
To be the person that she left behind,
Yielding to the love that rules her day.

Nor should she, when her ship sets sail, stay
In deference to some dictate of the mind.
None need give up the gift of fictive play,
Enriched by more than any life might find.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/49c.html For more poems about psychology, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/psychologicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Psychology
5/2: Forty-Nine3