My Love for You Is Something I'm Afraid of

September 25, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

A love poem from a teenager to an adult lover:

My love for you is something I'm afraid of.

You're all grown up, and I am still a kid.

You tell me that you love me. I believe it.

But something in me says this isn't good.

You touch me and I melt into your yearning.

You kiss me and I never want to stop.

I dream of you whenever I'm not with you.

And yet I cannot trust you - not just yet.

Yes, love and trust must always go together,

And it's a sign of trouble when they don't.

You are a man, and I not yet a woman,

Too young to know exactly what I want.

You say you'll wait for me, which makes me happy,

As I, too, wait for me to find my way.

Years are sunlit space for me to grow in

Until we can love boldly, eye-to-eye.

© 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/mylov6.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love

9/24: I Don’t Know How We Get into These Fights

9/25: My Love for You Is Something I’m Afraid of

I Don't Know How We Get into These Fights

September 24, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

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

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

An “I’m sorry” love poem apologizing for fighting:

I don't know how we get into these fights.

After them I look back at the ashes

More shocked than hurt, as when a light plane crashes,

Slanting numb through strange, unearthly lights.

Oh, how I wish I could get off that plane

Rushing to its rendezvous with tears!

Rage is but a mask for my shy fears.

Yet I would die before I caused you pain.

© 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/idont3.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love

9/24: I Don’t Know How We Get into These Fights

Proverbs on Good and Evil

September 23, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is good and evil in honor of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which begins on September 18.

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

A set of proverbs on good and evil:

PROVERBS ON GOOD AND EVIL

1. Good and evil are like unstable elements that bond immediately to form a single molecule. A jolt of electricity, however, can temporarily separate them again.

2. The innocent are guilty of not knowing they are guilty, whereas the guilty are innocent of not knowing they are guilty.

3. The most common justification for evil is cynicism. The second most common justification for evil is idealism. However, idealism tends to justify the greater evil.

4. One often perceives someone as evil because one perceives oneself as good. This error is the cause of a great deal of confusion and suffering.

5. The reward for goodness is self-satisfaction, wherein also lies great danger.

6. How, then, is one to know good from evil? That which springs from love is good. That which springs from greed, lust, or hatred is evil. That which is beautiful is good. That which is ugly is evil. That which you yourself would want from another is good. That which you yourself would not want from another is evil.

7. There are those who cast aside all restraints and are willingly evil. There are those who live perpetually restrained and become self-righteous. There are those who are aware of the evil in their hearts, words, and acts, yet are able to love themselves and others.

8. Evil must sometimes be met with violence, but the only antidote is love.

9. Thus to be good one must love those who are evil, among whom one must include oneself. That is, to be good one must know one is evil, both at war and at peace with oneself.

10. In the war between good and evil, the major battleground is in the hearts of children, and the weapons are the lives of adults.

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

This week’s theme: Good and Evil

9/17: Cynicism Comes from Self-Disgust

9/18: You Wrap Your Mind Around the Consequence

9/19: Year After Year, You Promise to Atone

9/20: Proverbs on Ideological Idealism

9/21: The Problem Isn’t Simply One of Rules

9/22: Gretchen

9/23: Proverbs on Good and Evil

Gretchen

September 22, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is good and evil in honor of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which begins on September 18.

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

A name poem for a universal giver of good:

Gretchen is a universal giver,

Replenishing our reservoirs within.

Each act of kindness swells a righteous river,

Tears that flow against the tide of sin.

Could kindness only be like blood transfused,

How simple it would be to heal the heart!

Even so, every drop is used,

Needed tincture for the healer’s art.

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

This week’s theme: Good and Evil

9/17: Cynicism Comes from Self-Disgust

9/18: You Wrap Your Mind Around the Consequence

9/19: Year After Year, You Promise to Atone

9/20: Proverbs on Ideological Idealism

9/21: The Problem Isn’t Simply One of Rules

9/22: Gretchen

The Problem Isn't Simply One of Rules

September 21, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is good and evil in honor of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which begins on September 18.

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

A poem about the causes of corruption and what one can do about it:

The problem isn’t simply one of rules.

Corruption is a matter of the heart

In which one’s inner music plays its part,

Cacophony that makes chords sound like fools.

One cannot teach integrity in schools,

Nor sell it through philosophy or art,

Nor fashion it from fear, nor from the start

Build it with a set of legal tools.

All these are well and good, and should be done.

But one must change the music if one would

Reduce corruption to a rare disease.

One dances to a tune, for there is none

Not moved by music. So sing! And your voice could

Restore a bit of virtue by degrees.

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

This week’s theme: Good and Evil

9/17: Cynicism Comes from Self-Disgust

9/18: You Wrap Your Mind Around the Consequence

9/19: Year After Year, You Promise to Atone

9/20: Proverbs on Ideological Idealism

9/21: The Problem Isn’t Simply One of Rules

Proverbs on Ideological Idealism

September 20, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is good and evil in honor of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which begins on September 18.

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

A set of proverbs about the evil of ideological idealism:

PROVERBS ON IDEOLOGICAL IDEALISM

1.         Ideological idealism is an idealism that is so sure it is right that it is willing to impose its vision on an unwilling world.

2.         Ideals ought to be mountains to guide one’s chosen way, not blueprints for a prison to keep people behind bars for their own good.

3.         Non-ideological idealists devote their lives first to people and then perhaps to an organization or cause. Ideological idealists devote their lives first to an organization or cause and then perhaps to people.

4.         Cynicism, lust, and greed tend to cause less evil than ideological idealism since their evil is committed in pursuit of some limited selfish end, whereas the evil of ideological idealism is committed in pursuit of unachievable ends and therefore knows no bounds.

5.         One ought not be frightened away from idealism by the dangers of ideological idealism since once the differences between them become apparent, it should not be difficult to devote oneself to one and avoid the other.

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

This week’s theme: Good and Evil

9/17: Cynicism Comes from Self-Disgust

9/18: You Wrap Your Mind Around the Consequence

9/19: Year After Year, You Promise to Atone

9/20: Proverbs on Ideological Idealism

Year After Year, You Promise to Atone

September 19, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is good and evil in honor of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which begins on September 18.

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

A poem for Yom Kippur about an inability to recognize how deeply one is implicated in the evil of one’s world:

Year after year, you promise to atone.

Often, yes, you actually mean it.

Maybe you remember life's on loan,

Knowing you're expected to redeem it.

Into prayers you pour your willing heart,

Perhaps at times unsure of what you've done,

Perhaps at times unsure of where to start,

Uncovering what look like sins, though none

Requires much atonement on your part.

© 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/yearaf.html. For more poems for Yom Kippur, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Good and Evil

9/17: Cynicism Comes from Self-Disgust

9/18: You Wrap Your Mind Around the Consequence

9/19: Year After Year, You Promise to Atone