Mock Orange

 
Tulips, Wind and Sun, by Frank Schaeffer
official website

Orange Flower
by Diana Jiganie, Romania

Our friendship is but an orange flower
fragile child of our hearts
bound together
in time and space, endless chase
beyond madness, just a trace
of orange scent
oh, let me descent
in the late hours of the night
and there, out of sight
standing still
in the white morning chill
sweeter than a kiss
tears turning to bliss
i will hold you, protect you
heal you and fill you
orange flower of gratitude
seven years of solitude
an eternity of multiple choices
lost and found
forever bound
so close, yet so far
will it survive, the orange flower
from the first to the very last hour?



Orange Flowers
by PrettyKitty570, Newark, NJ

I used to keep orange flowers in my pockets,
And walk slowly around the soft green grass,
And smell the scent of the sweet nectar that rose into the air,
Hoping that the sweetness of my flowers would soon become my own.

Oh how I wish I still kept orange flowers in my pockets,
Hoping that their sweetness would soon become our own,
Hoping that they could somehow wipe away your tears and your pain,
Hoping that they could be a better friend than I ever was.

I once used to keep orange flowers in my pockets,
but orange flowers soon wilt to brown bitterness.

Poems of Friendship

 

A Time to Talk

When a friend calls to me from the road
And slows his horse to a meaning walk,
I don't stand still and look around
On all the hills I haven't hoed,
And shout from where I am, What is it?No, not as there is a time to talk.
I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground,
Blade-end up and five feet tall,
And plod: I go up to the stone wall
For a friendly visit.

- Robert Frost



SONNET #30


HEN to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thought I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancelled woe,
And moan th' expense of many a vanished sight.
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoanèd moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.

- William Shakespeare (1564-1616)



Essay VI Friendship

A ruddy drop of manly blood
The surging sea outweighs,
The world uncertain comes and goes,
The lover rooted stays.
I fancied he was fled,
And, after many a year,
Glowed unexhausted kindliness
Like daily sunrise there.
My careful heart was free again, —
O friend, my bosom said,
Through thee alone the sky is arched,
Through thee the rose is red,
All things through thee take nobler form,
And look beyond the earth,
And is the mill-round of our fate
A sun-path in thy worth.
Me too thy nobleness has taught
To master my despair;
The fountains of my hidden life
Are through thy friendship fair.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson



A Prayer

It is my joy in life to fine
    At every turning of the road,
The strong arm of a comrade kind
    To help me onward with my load.
 
And since I have no gold to give,
    And love alone must make amends,
My only prayer is, while I live, -
    God make me worthy of my friends!

- Frank Demspter Sherman



The Arrow and the Song

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Be a Friend

Be a friend. You don't need money:
Just a disposition sunny;
Just the wish to help another
Get along some way or other;
Just a kindly hand extended
Out to one who’s unbefriended;
Just the will to give or lend,
This will make you someone’s friend.

Be a friend. You don't need glory.
Friendship is a simple story.
Pass by trifling errors blindly,
Gaze on honest effort kindly,
Cheer the youth who’s bravely trying,
Pity him who’s sadly sighing;
Just a little labor spend
On the duties of a friend.

Be a friend. The pay is bigger
(Though not written by a figure)
Than is earned by people clever
In what’s merely self-endeavor.
You'll have friends instead of neighbors
For the profits of your labors;
You'll be richer in the end
Than a prince, if you're a friend.

- Edgar A. Guest