Deep

I do not want this poem to go too deep.
It's premature, and love's too far away.
But there are things I feel the need to say
Rather than more days of silence keep.
I hope for you it's not too great a leap
To hear me talking to you in this way.
My fears sometimes my sentiments betray,
Telling me to put my thoughts to sleep.
Ever since we met I've thought of you
As something more than just a passing friend.
You seem so lovely, like a melody
That haunts me with the wisp of something true.
You haunt me still, and so I won't pretend:
I tell you this that you might think of me.

Cure

How can I tell you what I feel for you?
When I think of you my feelings twist inside
As if someone's fist reached in and grabbed a few,
And turned and turned them tight and tangled. I've tried
Somehow to say: You're the sun in my sky,
The wind that takes me where I want to go,
The sweet incense that makes me feel so high
That loving you seems all I need to know.
But it all sticks in my throat! It sounds too cute,
Empty as a wrinkled paper bag.
You won't believe it! Better I stay mute
Than offer you cliches that make you gag.
And yet I wish to tell you of my love,
If only love its own locks would remove!

Chrysanthemums

Chrysanthemums are clear in morning air.
How can you see them now? The sun's asleep!
All my words of love must bloom in darkness.
Day cannot come because I cannot speak.

Exultant

Beautiful eyes, beautiful face,
I'm shy to talk to you.
You're the eagle I must watch
No matter what I do.

You're the beauty, wild and free,
The mistress of my eyes,
Rolling through exultant air,
Alone in pristine skies.

I would take you for my own
Could I but have your wings,
Could I but go where night begins
And frozen sunlight sings.

Could I but have you for my love,
How might we fly together!
But I must watch you from below
And long for you forever.
But I must be the one below
And long for you forever.

Holding

Be gentle: What you're holding is my heart.
Remember in your honesty my pride.
If you don't want to see me, please don't hide
The truth, yet tell it with some art.
Though you may not have asked for me to call,
A single leap of hope must be allowed.
Not easily are shy songs sung out loud.
Yet now I wait alone outside your wall.

200 miles

Your eyes won't let my thoughts go back to sleep.
Your words draw me across 2000 miles.
I don't know you at all, and yet I know
You better than my friends of many years.

The days I spent with you are like a tape
I play, rewind, play, rewind, and play.
Whenever I remember something new,
I feel as though you touched me on the cheek.

I miss you as the grass awaits the wind,
Or as the morning sky awaits the sun.
Although I look for you in every doorway,
I find only the darkness in my heart.

Could

The roll books of the stars are kept
In files atom-size,
Yet just one glimpse of you or me
Would fill up all the skies.

I am a mystery to me
As you must be to you.
How could we hope to understand
The mystery of two?

So we will feel what we must feel
And find some word to fit,
Even though we look inside
And see that isn't it;

And I will think of you no matter
What I'm thinking of,
Even though I know it's much
Too soon to call it love.

Young

I have a friend with benefits,
Whom off and on I see.
While I use her to get my kicks,
She also uses me.

She's not my girlfriend, just a friend
With whom I have some sex.
Too young to love, we play the game
And wonder what comes next.

We try out stuff from porno sites,
Watching what we do
As though we were on film, and someone
Else was watching, too.

Yet somehow, somewhere even we
Still know we yearn for love,
And wait like withered stalks to feel
That wind within us move.

Seemed

I don't understand what happened to us
Or why you have turned away.
Of course you are free to do as you like,
But first I have something to say.

To me it had seemed we could go on forever,
So close were our hearts, and at ease,
So much did we share, yet the words never faltered,
So I thought as time did as it pleased.

Whatever I did that has made you unhappy,
Or am that is not to your taste,
Or would be were I to return to your graces,
Or won't be if I am replaced:

I want you to know that your friendship is something
I treasure, and would not now end.
If you would be willing to turn to embrace me,
You'd find in me still a good friend.

Eyes

I do not see you often with my eyes,
But often you are with me in my heart.
We rarely speak, but there are deeper ties
That keep us close while we must be apart.
Friendships don't depend on sights and sounds,
But on the mysteries of need and grace.
You're with me always, unrestrained by bounds,
In some sweet field more permanent than place.
And so your marriage is a widespread glory,
Shining on a world of more than two.
All the characters in your life story
Share the happiness that's come to you.
No love but must with all love intertwine:
The joy between you two is also mine.

Touched

How little in me is not touched by you!
A friendship is a light that fills the heart,
Painting with its gold each darkened hue,
Providing warmth to each sequestered part.
You are the mirror of my better self,
Verifier of the best in me,
A bridge across the unsuspected gulf
Lodged between what can and ought to be.
Expectations can be wings, not bars,
Necessary to sustain our flight.
The faith of friends in us is wholly ours,
Incoming to uplift us to its height.
No soul can see itself, but must depend,
Each on each, upon a trusted friend.

Room

Here are festive flowers for your room,
A spray of springtime on your bare night table:
Placed upon a place within your view;
Placed where best to light your harried heart.
Yet my blossoms can't dispel your gloom,
Even were they many times more able:
All that gifts from loving friends can do
Sings just one unaccompanied inner part.
The music cannot come from aught but you,
Evangelist beside the empty tomb
Rejoicing with all innocence and art.

Reason

Graduation's reason to rejoice,
Remembering what lies beyond our ends.
And so yours gives occasion to my voice,
Delighting in the gift of being friends.
Underneath your pleasure is my pride,
As yours remains the rock on which I stand.
The window through which I can see inside
Is hung upon the mirror in your hand.
One cannot be one without the other,
Nor can we be ourselves without another.

Goodbye

Goodbye, dear friend and graduate!
Our golden time is over now,
Our time of nothing more than time,
Days of simply being friends.
But I will always treasure how
Your love for me slipped into mine,
Embracing me where courage ends.

Bit

There is in friendship just a bit of Eden,
Harboring our early innocence,
Acting out of pleasure in our pleasure,
Not calculating cost or recompense,
Knowing the abundance that we breed in.

Your friendship is a book that I may read in,
Opening a truth I cannot measure
Unless it be with signs or sacraments.

Moments

The happiness I feel at your achievements
Reflects the happiness you feel at mine.
Friends expand the pleasures of such moments,
As mine in yours, and yours in mine, combine.
The same when we look forward to our futures:
So much more unfolds when there are two!
Populating your proposed adventures
Gives me a joy that mine must give to you.
We've been through much, and will be through much more,
But traveling together is more fun.
Whatever life and love may have in store,
Two is always preferable to one.
Your graduation thus becomes my pleasure:
Your happiness is mine, a double treasure.

Surrender

Thanksgiving is a moment to remember
How little we can do to move the stars.
All we are and have we must surrender,
Nor is Earth less inscrutable than Mars.
Knowing this, we know the need for friends
Sharing both our pleasures and our pain,
Giving, though it may not serve their ends,
In joy the love that will our love sustain.
Very much like water in a lake,
In sum we serve as mirrors to the sky.
No one alone can heaven's picture take.
Given friends, we know the reason why.

Turn

Thank you for your friendship and your love.
However life may turn, this gift will be
A mountain that has made my river bend,
Nor will it flow the same way to the sea.
Knowing you is something I'm made of.

Years will not this part of me remove.
One lives for just a brief eternity,
Understanding truths that never end.

Words

Thank you for you: for who you are,
However far away;
And for the words you send to me,
Near mad for what you say.
Knowing simply that you're there,
Yet thinking much of me,
Opens up my happiness,
Undone for all to see.

Sister

Our friendship is as close as closest sisters,
Two flutes with a single melody,
Interchanging runs through changing vistas,
Notes like birds alighting on a tree.
To some, friends are like books upon a shelf;
Yet you to me are like another self.
This music will not stop for other misters,
Nor will it pause for princes, real or elf.
However life may wend, we will be we.

Secret

Old and good friends share a piece
Of passion, pain, and pleasure
That no one else, no family can
Begin to know or treasure.

It's as if a secret room
Held their private store,
And every time they met, they could
Go through some special door.

It doesn't matter if they see
Each other every day,
Or years and years go by before
They come and go away:

The moment that they meet it all
Is there--the memories of
Fierce loyalty and times of need
And gratitude and love.