☀️ The Daily Boost #849
I will. I will. I will.
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OLD FRIENDS Freya Manfred Old friends are a steady spring rain, or late summer sunshine edging into fall, or frosted leaves along a snowy path— a voice for all seasons saying, I know you. The older I grow, the more I fear I'll lose my old friends, as if too many years have scrolled by since the day we sprang forth, seeking each other. Old friend, I knew you before we met. I saw you at the window of my soul— I heard you in the steady millstone of my heart grinding grain for our daily bread. You are sedimentary, rock-solid cousin earth, where I stand firmly, astonished by your grace and truth. And gratitude comes to me and says: "Tell me anything and I will listen. Ask me anything, and I will answer you."
(My thanks to Freya Manfred, via Poetry Foundation.)
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Elephant and Bird
—responding to Jory Mason’s 2024 sculpture “Young Friends”
What might
a baby elephant
and a bird
have to teach?
With wrinkles and wings,
a tender trunk and a beckoning beak
themselves at home on the African continent
Meanwhile, humans engaged in scientific study or art rendition
notice how a red-beaked oxpecker,
all of eight inches long and weighing a mere two ounces,
companions a young elephant’s two hundred-plus pounds
catching there a free ride
so as to feast upon tiny pests,
a splendid symbiosis created by difference—
one might even call it a friendship arrangement,
minute and magnanimous
from tip of trunk to tip of beak
displaying a truth
voiced by an American sage
“A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature”
May the young always be
schooled to see and be
this elephant in the room.
—Emily Jane VandenBos Style - sharing a recent FRIENDSHIP poem I wrote - as a boost back
Brought some tears….. “The older I grow, the more I fear I'll lose my old friends,”
I’m at the age where this so resonates …..