Enduring Passions Are What Change the World

August 25, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is sacrifice in honor of Eid al-Adha, which this year is celebrated on August 21-22.

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

A poem for those who devote their lives to creating an institute:

Enduring passions are what change the world,

Undertaking what might last one’s life,

Grasping what at first in darkness furled

Emerges year by year into the light.

No gratitude can match such deep devotion,

Encompass all the good that it has done,

Grant such sacrifice its due emotion,

Reward a selflessness that asks for none.

Even so, we do what we can do,

Enabling this passion, if we can,

Not just by funding institutes, but through

Building what sustains what it began.

Each institute embodies an idea

Rooted in a passionate career,

Granting that the good outlasts the man.

© 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/.html. For more philosophical poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

8/20: Eric

8/21: Even as You Sacrifice Yourself

8/22: Selfishness and Selflessness

8/23: Darrin2

8/24: Amanda

8/25: Enduring Passions Are What Change theWorld

Amanda

August 24, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is sacrifice in honor of Eid al-Adha, which this year is celebrated on August 21-22.

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

A name poem for someone who sacrifices herself for love:

Amanda is a keeper of the flame,

Mistress of the house and of the ring;

A passionate giver, who knows well the shame

Needing someone silently can bring.

Don't pity her for her self-sacrifice:

Amanda knows her joys and pays the price.

© 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/amanda.html. For more name poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/namepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

8/20: Eric

8/21: Even as You Sacrifice Yourself

8/22: Selfishness and Selflessness

8/23: Darrin2

8/24: Amanda

Darrin2

August 23, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is sacrifice in honor of Eid al-Adha, which this year is celebrated on August 21-22.

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

A name poem about drug addicts who are resolved sacrifice their habit for the sake of their child:

Darrin is a ship of dreams

Afloat upon a wind

Reserved for those whom love redeems,

Resolved to turn again

In grim and patient sacrifice,

Not for themselves, but him.

© 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/darri2.html. For more poems about alcoholism and drug addiction, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/alcoholismaddictionpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

8/20: Eric

8/21: Even as You Sacrifice Yourself

8/22: Selfishness and Selflessness

8/23: Darrin2

Selfishness and Selflessness

August 22, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is sacrifice in honor of Eid al-Adha, which this year is celebrated on August 21-22.

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

A set of proverbs about selfish and unselfish sacrifice:

SELFISHNESS AND SELFLESSNESS

1. The last vestige of egotism is the desire for self-sacrifice.

2. The reward for self-sacrifice is self-adulation.

3. The desire to "make a difference" is a desire for personal significance, the cause of much evil, error, and pain.

4. True selflessness requires one to relinquish the desire for power.

5. The motivations for action ought always to be joy and love.

© 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/selfis.html. For more proverbs, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/proverbs.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

8/20: Eric

8/21: Even as You Sacrifice Yourself

8/22: Selfishness and Selflessness

Even as You Sacrifice Yourself

August 21, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is sacrifice in honor of Eid al-Adha, which this year is celebrated on August 21-22.

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

A poem for Eid al-Adha about sacrifice as a gift:

Even as you sacrifice yourself,

In love with love and gratified to give,

Dancing 'cross the ancient inner gulf

Athwart the plain on which each soul must live,

Long-borne burdens lighten into prayer,

Acts of worship meant as acts of care,

Done freely out of gratitude and grace,

Hard - yes, hard - and far more than your share,

And still a gift no pleasure can replace.

© 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/evena3.html. For more poems about Eid al-Adha, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/eidaladhapoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

8/20: Eric

8/21: Even as You Sacrifice Yourself

Eric

August 20, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is sacrifice in honor of Eid al-Adha, which this year is celebrated on August 21-22.

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

A name poem for someone who sacrificed his life to save another:

Eric gave his life to save another,

Refusing to reduce it to his breath.

In his time of truth he faced his shudder,

Choosing life by going to his death.

© 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/eric.html. For more poems about ethics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Sacrifice

8/20: Eric

Sweet Sixteens Are Harbingers of Grace

August 19, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A birthday poem that serves as an invitation to a sweet sixteen party:

Sweet Sixteens are harbingers of grace,

Intimations of a childhood's end,

Xxx's on the envelope of time.

This invitation I to you extend,

Easy in the rush of time and place,

Expecting in the moment's silver chime

No more than just a glimpse of life to come.

© 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/swee16.html. For more birthday poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/birthdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Birthdays

8/13: Seven Years! That’s Not So Long

8/14: Aileen

8/15: Happy Birthday to My Cyber Friend

8/16: You See the Beauty of Your Years

8/17: Darcy Is Five

8/18: Quince Is the Sunrise of a Woman

8/19: Sweet Sixteens Are Harbingers of Grace