We're back in a new incarnation, and we're calling all poets who blog! Our Mighty Foursome plans to inspire ourselves and other poets through Wednesday prompts.
"Friendship is," Coleridge said, "a sheltering tree." Is that how you see it? Do other metaphors come to mind? When you say a person, a book, a tree, or a place is a friend, what do you mean? What is the give and take of friendship?
I've a million questions to make this prompt resonate after years of writing about friends. Friendships vary, and change over time. And I've learned that the loss of a close friend brings their preciousness into sharper focus.
For this prompt, one of your choices is to clarify by example--narrate a moment spent with a particular friend.
Ordinarily I go to the woods alone,
with not a single friend,
for they are all smilers and talkers
and therefore unsuitable.
I don’t really want to be witnessed talking to the catbirds
or hugging the old black oak tree.
I have my ways of praying,
as you no doubt have yours.
Besides, when I am alone
I can become invisible.
I can sit on the top of a dune
as motionless as an uprise of weeds,
until the foxes run by unconcerned.
I can hear the almost unhearable sound of the roses singing.
If you have ever gone to the woods with me,
I must love you very much.
