Your friend is your needs answered
He is your field which you sow with love
And reap with Thanksgiving
And he is your board and your fireside
For you come to him with your hunger
And you seek him for peace
When your friend speaks his mind
You fear not the neigh in your own mind
Nor do you withhold the aye
And when he is silent
Your heart ceases not to listen to his heart
Without words, in friendship, all thoughts
All desires, all expectations are borne and shared
With joy that is unacclaimed
When you part from your friend
You grieve not
For that which you love most in him
May be clearer in his absence
As the mountain to the climber
Is clearer from the plain
And let there be no purpose in friendship
Save the deepening of the spirit
For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own misery
Is not love, but a net cast forth a
And only the unprofitable is caught
And let your best be for your friend
If he must know the ebb of your tide
Llet him know its flood also
For what is your friend
That you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live
for it is his to fill your need
But not your emptiness
And in the sweetness of friendship
Let there be laughter and sharing of pleasures
For in the dew of little things
The heart finds its morning and is refreshed