Poem of the Week

7/11: Blessed Are Those Who Compromise Their Visions

7/12: Beyond the Reign of Terror

7/13: Good and Honest People Can Do Evil

7/14: Because Injustice Is the Match

Good and Honest People Can Do Evil

July 13, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Bastille Day, which will be celebrated tomorrow, July 14.

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

A Bastille Day poem about how in politics good intentions can lead to evil actions.

Good and honest people can do evil

As just ends can inspire brutal means.

In politics, a saint can be a devil,

Calculating what might be the level

Of suffering the greater good redeems.

Good and honest people can do evil

As well-honed ideologies give ample

Cause to murder others for one’s dreams.

In politics, a saint can be a devil,

Romantic as the idealistic rebel,

Tyrannical as truth splits at the seams.

Good and honest people can do evil,

Reducing life’s complexities to simple

Slogans that are best conveyed by screams.

In politics, a saint can be a devil,

More saint, more devil, a hammer on an anvil

That shapes the willing faithful into fiends..

Good and honest people can do evil.

In politics, a saint can be a devil.

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/goodan.html. For more Bastille Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Bastille Day

7/11: Blessed Are Those Who Compromise Their Visions

7/12: Beyond the Reign of Terror

7/13: Good and Honest People Can Do Evil

Thursday, July 11, 2019

Beyond the Reign of Terror

July 12, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Bastille Day, which is celebrated on July 14.

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

A Bastille Day poem about the hope that continues to survive brutality:

Beyond the Reign of Terror,

Beyond the tyranny,

A silence lingers just offshore

Like fog upon the sea.

Is it death? Or is it

A future yet unknown?

Or is it in one’s flooded heart

A longing all one’s own?

It is eternal hope,

A peace that has no when,

Hanging just offshore, beyond

One’s brutal mise-en-scène.

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/beyond.html. For more Bastille Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Bastille Day

7/11: Blessed Are Those Who Compromise Their Visions

7/12: Beyond the Reign of Terror

Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Blessed Are Those Who Compromise Their Visions

July 11, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Bastille Day, which is celebrated on July 14.

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

A Bastille Day poem about the virtues of compromise:

Blessed are those who compromise their visions

And share their power with the other side,

Substituting faith for fratricide,

Trading principles for joint decisions.

Instead of blood, their battles will yield laws,

Less just, perhaps, than those they would have wanted,

Less brutal than the crimes that would have haunted

Each of them and undermined their cause.

Democracy requires compromise

And sometimes letting fools outvote the wise.

Yet some prefer the righteousness of wars.

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/bless6.html For more Bastille Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Bastille Day

7/11: Blessed Are Those Who Compromise Their Visions

Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Because the Root of Poverty Is Injustice

July 10, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Bastille Day, which is celebrated on July 14.

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

A Bastille Day poem arguing against the assumption that poverty is inevitable:

Because the root of poverty is injustice,

And there is wealth enough for all to have

Sustenance and shelter, and the promise

That all will prosper if they work and save;

Indeed, because those then have fewer children,

Leaving each more room in which to grow,

Leveraging lives through education,

Elevating lives by what they know:

Do not succumb to comfortable despair,

And think the poor, like flies, are simply there,

Yielding what might be to what seems so.

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/becau2.html. For more Bastille Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Bastille Day

Beware of Power Absolute, Unshared

July 9, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Bastille Day, which is celebrated on July 14.

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

A Bastille Day poem about the dangers of absolute power even in the hands of those who wish to do good:

Beware of power absolute, unshared,

As you pursue the ends that are your passion.

So why might one, as sovereign, choose to ration

The power one might summon unimpaired?

In doing so, one sees what one might be:

Like those whose ends were good, but means were not;

Like those who hoped that blood might sweep the rot

Encrusted on their longings out to sea.

Desperate to do good, some would, unchecked,

Appropriate the world they would perfect.

Yet evil knows no ideology.

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/bewar4.html. For more Bastille Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Bastille Day

Monday, July 8, 2019

Brace Yourself for Love, for It Is Coming

July 8, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Bastille Day, which is celebrated on July 14.

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

A Bastille Day poem about the need for love in making economic choices:

Brace yourself for love, for it is coming,

A wave of love that well might knock you down.

So may you lose your hard-earned rep for cunning,

The ruthlessness for which you are renowned.

In every moment, every thought and feeling,

Love waits for you to turn and it is there,

Lying ‘neath the equities you’re dealing

Endlessly, a longing that you share.

Do, then, turn, and let yourself be broken,

And let your pain and sorrow be a token

You leave for those who deal and do not care.

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/bracey.html. For more Bastille Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Bastille Day