Love and Friendship

Loneliness, anxiety, and despair,
isolation, sorrow, bitterness -
these the cruel concerns, observers note,
that press upon our current consciousness.

To name mind's enemies is good for mind:
for straightway, two arch-fiends themselves reveal:
separation, and false sense of loss.
These enemies now named, what salve may heal?

Think one - the other follows; thus, one fiend,
whose only weapon is that thought of loss.
But we own that which we can never lose;
yet know not - 'til we give it - ever ours:

give what you think you have not: that which mends
these cruel concerns in others: love of friends.

poem by Michael Shepherd
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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