FRIENDS ARE YOUR JOY AND GRIEF

Should your friend really be a mirror
Yet in a hall of bright mirrors
Each but an angle on you
Should your friend be a treasure mountain
Refrain from greed to uncover
His life as four seasons enrich you
His poise unchanging to teach
Should your friend be the boundless ocean
He may not forbear you ever
Deep down the sea hides its sorrows
His tides to moisten your sand
Some friends you need like stairways
Some friends lie soft as pasture
Your friends are your joy and sorrow
Your heart their music to play
Deep down your heart strings its music
Deep down the sharp blade your own
The handle you pass to be wielded
Your joy and your sorrow to claim
Your kin bind you with your blood
Your partner you bind with vows
Acquaintance is bound for a season
Unasked for, Life richly endows
To part is not to be lost
To lose is to cease to recall
Your friend loses you by neglect
Your heart reclaims him through joy
As shoes march on together
Each is not like the other
And they keep their distance apart.