Forty-Seven Years, and Still Counting

December 3, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is wedding anniversaries.

Today’s poem is a 47^th anniversary poem about married love as a lifelong dance.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Forty-seven years, and still counting!

Over so much time, so much change!

Remember when we were our children's ages,

There in the thick of working out our lives?

Years are leaves piling up around us.

Sing, then, of the blessings that surround us,

Each wonder that the wondering heart revives!

Vast one's life! We travel it in stages,

Even as love makes the land less strange,

Needing love to make life more inviting.

You and I together have been dancing,

Embraced through years we would not rearrange,

Although, of course, we might excise some pages,

Returning, turning to the dance, where lies

Such grace as still has power to astound us.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/47year.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Wedding Anniversaries

November 27: Freedom Is the Power to Commit

November 28: Holding Hands, We’ve Walked Through Many Years

November 29: How Beautiful Life Is, and How Rewarding

November 30: Each Year a Marriage Gets a Little Better

December 1: Here’s a Toast to Caring and Compassion

December 2: Happy Ninth Anniversary

December 3: Forty-Seven Years and Still Counting

Happy Ninth Anniversary

December 2, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is wedding anniversaries.

Today’s poem is a 9^th anniversary poem about love and time.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Happy ninth anniversary!

As the years go by,

Passions come and go like tides,

Pleasures live and die.

Yet love is more dependable,

Nestled in the heart,

In which your bit of grace

Now has a name and face,

The choice you made nine years ago,

Honed by will and art.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/happ78.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Wedding Anniversaries

November 27: Freedom Is the Power to Commit

November 28: Holding Hands, We’ve Walked Through Many Years

November 29: How Beautiful Life Is, and How Rewarding

November 30: Each Year a Marriage Gets a Little Better

December 1: Here’s a Toast to Caring and Compassion

December 2: Happy Ninth Anniversary

Here's a Toast to Caring and Compassion

December 1, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is wedding anniversaries.

Today’s poem is an 8^th anniversary poem about giving and happiness in love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Here’s a toast to caring and compassion,

And love, which is the music of that song.

Praised be those whose love of life is strong,

Pleased to give with neither writ nor ration.

Years are rarely merciful to passion,

Even as love would that joy prolong,

Innocent of all that might be wrong,

Giving generously, as is its fashion.

Happiness remains an act of will,

The daily choice to love with grace and skill,

Having found the place where one belongs.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/heres4.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Wedding Anniversaries

November 27: Freedom Is the Power to Commit

November 28: Holding Hands, We’ve Walked Through Many Years

November 29: How Beautiful Life Is, and How Rewarding

November 30: Each Year a Marriage Gets a Little Better

December 1: Here’s a Toast to Caring and Compassion

Each Year a Marriage Gets a Little Better

November 30, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is wedding anniversaries.

Today’s poem is an 11^th anniversary poem about the continued need for romance in marriage.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Each year a marriage gets a little better,

Like a house slowly settling in.

Edges age, smooth out, then lean together;

Voices whisper faintly in the wind.

Even so, fresh flowers can do wonders,

Needed at the windows, at the door.

Years of wear could use a little color,

Embellishing what else needs little more.

All marriages can profit from romance,

Required to turn duty into dance,

Still beautiful, with much more love in store.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/eachy3.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Wedding Anniversaries

November 27: Freedom Is the Power to Commit

November 28: Holding Hands, We’ve Walked Through Many Years

November 29: How Beautiful Life Is, and How Rewarding

November 30: Each Year a Marriage Gets a Little Better

How Beautiful Life Is, and How Rewarding

November 29, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is wedding anniversaries.

Today’s poem is a 10^th anniversary poem about love as background music.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

How beautiful life is, and how rewarding!

All one needs to do is be in love.

People fall in love with little warning;

Praised be those whose loves resilient prove!

Yet love can sometimes be like background music,

The unheard song that gives the moment grace,

Enduring melody for those who choose it,

Needing, wanting love’s sustained embrace.

Time and change need not desire chill:

Happiness remains the child of will.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/howbe4.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Wedding Anniversaries

November 27: Freedom Is the Power to Commit

November 28: Holding Hands, We’ve Walked Through Many Years

November 29: How Beautiful Life Is, and How Rewarding

Holding Hands, We've Walked Through Many Years

November 28, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is wedding anniversaries.

Today’s poem is a 25^th anniversary poem about commitment, choice, fate, and fortune.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Holding hands, we’ve walked through many years,

A gift of daily choice called happiness.

Perhaps such love’s not easy to express.

Perhaps the only fit remarks are tears.

Yet under light, love’s beauty stabs and sears,

Too real to be reduced to more or less,

Wistful paradise, pure tenderness,

Embrace beyond fulfillment, longing, fears.

No commitment could be more complete,

There being little in one’s life untouched.

Years pass; the roots and branches intertwine;

Fortune seems like fate; two souls seem one.

In fact, one’s choice is one one must repeat.

Free will demands one’s separateness, as such.

To love is to create a place in time –

Here, now, a labor that is never done.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/holdin.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Wedding Anniversaries

November 27: Freedom Is the Power to Commit

November 28: Holding Hands, We’ve Walked Through Many Years

Freedom Is the Power to Commit

November 27, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is wedding anniversaries.

Today’s poem is a 49^th anniversary poem about love and choice.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Freedom is the power to commit

Oneself to limiting one’s freedom. Real choice

Rules out choices. One finds the proper fit,

Then through years of loving finds one’s voice.

Yet some are loath to choose because they fear

Not being free to choose, at every moment

In flight from choice because they cannot bear

Not living only, solely, in the present.

Each lover lives within a larger space,

Yielding to the future and the past,

Engaged in well-timed acts of timeless grace

As each, each day renews a love that lasts.

Rejoice, then, in that choice made long ago,

Still choosing love, for love is what you know.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/freed4.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Wedding Anniversaries

November 27: Freedom Is the Power to Commit

Thank You for the Harvest and the Healing

November 26, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Thanksgiving, which was celebrated on November 23.

Today’s poem is a Thanksgiving poem about the need to say thank you.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thank you for the harvest and the healing,

Health, wealth, hunger, all the goods of Earth,

All that we inherited at birth,

Need, joy, love, pain, grief, desire, feeling.

Know that we are grateful for our being,

Singing silent praises in our hearts,

Giving in the temples of our arts

Invocations to the act of seeing.

Vain though it may be to think you're hearing,

In us there is an ancient urge to speak,

Not for any answers that we seek,

Glad just to converse -- like love, like breathing.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/than43.html. For more Thanksgiving poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thanksgivingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Thanksgiving

November 20: The Gift of Being Cannot Be a Given

November 21: Tides Return the Favors They Have Taken

November 22: To Thank You Is a Gift One Gives Oneself

November 23: Trees About to Bloom, in Bloom, Full-Leaved

November 24: Thank You for the Gift of Being Thankful

November 25: There Is No Hope Without the Help of Grief

November 26: Thank You for the Harvest and the Healing

There Is No Hope Without the Help of Grief

November 25, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Thanksgiving, which was celebrated on November 23.

Today’s poem is a Thanksgiving poem about how hope is kindled by desperation.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

There is no hope without the help of grief.

Hope is kindled from a bed of ashes,

A history of holocausts and lashes,

Needing anguish to persuade belief;

Kindled only by a desperation

Strong enough to dry a pelting rain,

Grace that is the apogee of pain,

Intending more than personal salvation.

Vested in each sorrow is a dream,

Innocence surrounded by despair;

Nor are we grateful just for what is there,

Giving thanks for what we would redeem.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/ther26.html. For more Thanksgiving poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thanksgivingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Thanksgiving

November 20: The Gift of Being Cannot Be a Given

November 21: Tides Return the Favors They Have Taken

November 22: To Thank You Is a Gift One Gives Oneself

November 23: Trees About to Bloom, in Bloom, Full-Leaved

November 24: Thank You for the Gift of Being Thankful

November 25: There Is No Hope Without the Help of Grief

Thank You for the Gift of Being Thankful

November 24, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Thanksgiving, which was celebrated yesterday, November 23.

Today’s poem is a Thanksgiving poem thanking God for the gift of gratitude.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Thank You for the gift of being thankful.

Here is one gift we can both enjoy!

A gift that can at will my spirits buoy,

Needing only will to yield a heartful.

Knowledge won't engender gratitude;

Some may know a lot and yet feel little.

Grace comes hot and hearty off the griddle;

In some, though, there's no hunger for such food.

Voices sing of paradise at will.

I hear them when I start to sing alone.

Nor do I cease to hear them when they're gone,

Glad to be alive and thankful still.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/than46.html. For more Thanksgiving poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thanksgivingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Thanksgiving

November 20: The Gift of Being Cannot Be a Given

November 21: Tides Return the Favors They Have Taken

November 22: To Thank You Is a Gift One Gives Oneself

November 23: Trees About to Bloom, in Bloom, Full-Leaved.

November 24: Thank You for the Gift of Being Thankful

Trees About to Bloom, in Bloom, Full-Leaved

November 23, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Thanksgiving, which is celebrated today, November 23.

Today’s poem is a Thanksgiving poem with a list of things to be thankful for.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Trees about to bloom, in bloom, full-leaved;

Harrowing escapes, fresh plums and pears;

A cold, gray afternoon, a son long grieved;

Nearing home, the last long flight of stairs;

Kindnesses returned, a glimpse of breast;

Scent of lilac, hunger, tell-tale pain;

Gifts one cannot use, a playful pest;

Illnesses one would not wish again;

Victories, defeats, the urge to dance;

Imitation whipped cream, the real thing;

New thoughts, a lingering death, a brief romance;

Grace to love whatever life may bring.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/treesa.html. For more Thanksgiving poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thanksgivingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Thanksgiving

November 20: The Gift of Being Cannot Be a Given

November 21: Tides Return the Favors They Have Taken

November 22: To Thank You Is a Gift One Gives Oneself

November 23: Trees About to Bloom, in Bloom, Full-Leaved

To Thank You Is a Gift One Gives Oneself

November 22, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Thanksgiving, which is celebrated on November 23.

Today’s poem is a Thanksgiving poem about how gratitude is a gift one gives oneself.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

To thank You is a gift one gives oneself,

Having felt the fullness of one's being.

As You might--or not--be listening,

None knows more than his own gratitude.

Knowledge is beside the point, the gulf

So wide between us there's no hope of seeing.

Gifts require givers, so one sings

In thanks that in oneself some grace might move.

Vast quantities of thanks lie on the shelf

In wait for some fresh faith that might be freeing.

Nor ought one wait for one's own Angelus bell,

Giving one an object for one's love.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/tothan.html. For more Thanksgiving poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thanksgivingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Thanksgiving

November 20: The Gift of Being Cannot Be a Given

November 21: Tides Return the Favors They Have Taken

November 22: To Thank You Is a Gift One Gives Oneself

Tides Return the Favors They Have Taken

November 21, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Thanksgiving, which is celebrated on November 23.

Today’s poem is a Thanksgiving poem about getting more we give.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Tides return the favors they have taken,

Having had sufficient time to turn.

All enjoy more riches than they earn,

Nor need surrender what they have forsaken.

Kindness, like a candle caught in mirrors,

Sees itself in infinite regress,

Giving that keeps giving its largesse,

Imitating what it has been given.

Vast and bountiful, creation shimmers,

Intimate in ways we cannot know.

Nor do we fail to glean more than we sow,

Granted light that glows down to its embers.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/tidesr.html. For more Thanksgiving poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thanksgivingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Thanksgiving

November 20: The Gift of Being Cannot Be a Given

November 21: Tides Return the Favors They Have Taken

The Gift of Being Cannot Be a Given

November 20, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Thanksgiving, which is celebrated on November 23.

Today’s poem is a Thanksgiving poem about the implausible experience of free will.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

The gift of being cannot be a given:

How many trillion accidents made me?

And yet it seems no accident to be,

Nor seem I less the driver than the driven.

Knowledge cannot penetrate my freedom,

So absolute it seems I am that am.

God may or not exist; I must command

In practice, day-to-day, my tiny me-dom.

Very rarely what to us might seem,

Is what it is: a glimpse of greater glory.

Nor can I be the author of my story,

Graced to witness truths beyond my dreams.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/thegi2.html. For more Thanksgiving poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thanksgivingpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Thanksgiving

November 20: The Gift of Being Cannot Be a Given

First Love Is like Playing with Fire

November 19, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is love.

Today’s poem is for a first love long gone.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

First love is like playing with fire:

Aglow with pain and glory.

Tell me, my dear first love,

Whether I'm burned into your heart.

The fire in your body,

The glory of your touch:

Ah! my dear first love,

Never, never leave my heart!

Although the fire is distant,

The pain is always near.

My dear first love, please listen:

I hold you in my heart.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/first.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love

November 13: All I Ever Wanted Is in You

November 14: Before You, I Was Just Hanging Out

November 15: Chris and I Went Out Awhile Back

November 16: Do Not Doubt I Love You

November 17: Do You Want Me? What’s the Matter?

November 18: Even Though We Fight a Lot, I Love You

November 19: First Love Is like Playing with Fire

Even Though We Fight a Lot, I Love You

November 18, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is love.

Today’s poem is an I’m-sorry love poem about fighting and controlling.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Even though we fight a lot, I love you.

We fight, I think, because the stakes are high.

I sometimes get so mad I cannot stand you,

But underneath my anger I could cry.

I have an uncontrolled need to control you,

To be your only destiny and guide.

I know it isn't fair to try to mold you,

But my poor love's entangled in my pride.

Ah, love! Please love me even in my fury,

Which rises like a tide beneath the moon.

I plead before my only judge and jury:

I want to change, but know change won't come soon.

Love finds it hard to let the loved one be

The person who is loved so passionately.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/event3.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love

November 13: All I Ever Wanted Is in You

November 14: Before You, I Was Just Hanging Out

November 15: Chris and I Went Out Awhile Back

November 16: Do Not Doubt I Love You

November 17: Do You Want Me? What’s the Matter?

November 18: Even Though We Fight a Lot, I Love You

Do You Want Me? What's the Matter?

November 17, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is love.

Today’s poem is from girl to boy about the hypocrisy of wanting both freedom and possession.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Do you want me? What's the matter?

You're afraid some door will close?

You want the scent without the rose?

The moans of love without the chatter?

You think our love might be a tomb,

The only exit through my pain?

You'd rather put things off again

To give your fantasies some room?

You think: she's great, but in a while

I might get bored? Or something better,

Filling out a tighter sweater,

Might flash me a quick come-on smile?

You don't want to be tied just yet

To just one future, just one kiss?

You think about all that you might miss

And hold out for a better bet?

Well, fine! But then why do you haunt

Me like a jackal night and day?

Why, when my interest seems to stray,

Are you so sure of what you want?

Why, when I dare so much as laugh

At some guy's jokes, you go ballistic,

Nasty, borderline sadistic,

As if somebody touched your stuff?

And yet when I hook on to you,

You will not let yourself be mine,

Take out your fears and draw a line

Between what you and I can do?

But freedom must be mutual,

And it takes two for one embrace.

You can't both love and freedom chase,

Unless you would adore a fool.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/doyouw.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love

November 13: All I Ever Wanted Is in You

November 14: Before You, I Was Just Hanging Out

November 15: Chris and I Went Out Awhile Back

November 16: Do Not Doubt I Love You

November 17: Do You Want Me? What’s the Matter?

Do Not Doubt I Love You

November 16, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is love.

Today’s poem is an I’m-sorry love poem from an unfaithful lover.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Do not doubt I love you, even though

My actions may have undermined my words.

We could be as connubial as birds

Had I not let my wild longings show.

I cannot help wanting to devour

All the world that comes before my eyes;

But more than all the world is that which lies

Within the precious circle of our bower.

I'll do anything to keep you with me;

Our love will last as long as you have will.

Despite my untamed need, my love is still

A rock against the surges of the sea.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/donot.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love

November 13: All I Ever Wanted Is in You

November 14: Before You, I Was Just Hanging Out

November 15: Chris and I Went Out Awhile Back

November 16: Do Not Doubt I Love You

Chris and I Went Out Awhile Back

November 15, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is love.

Today’s poem is about a second try at love.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Chris and I went out awhile back.

It didn't work--I really don't know why.

Some unacknowledged dream was out of whack,

Went spinning off, and so we let it die.

Sometimes we attribute things to fate

When it's us, though we won't notice it.

Chris and I are back again--it's great!

We've both changed, and now we seem to fit.

I can't explain the happiness I find:

Chris smiles at me and something makes me glow.

Mysteries on mysteries unwind;

The deeper in we see, the less we know.

For now I think I'll just enjoy the ride;

Love Chris to bits, but still keep watch inside.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/chrisa.html. For more love poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Love

November 13: All I Ever Wanted Is in You

November 14: Before You, I Was Just Hanging Out

November 15: Chris and I Went Out Awhile Back