Ever written about a friendship lost?
A friendship based Friday round up
Ok so I may have struggled to actually find many poems to share with you this week that are about lost friendship. Plenty about friendship, not so much the lost part. So I’m hoping that you’ll fill in the gaps following our writing prompt for the week. Or if you know of any good ones written by other people please do share them in the comments.
Here, however, are a few poems that are friendship based. Hopefully you’ll enjoy them:
Women Friends by Pauline Prior-Pitt.
I Don’t Want Therapy, I Want a Friend, by Jennie Louise from an anthology by Sunday Mornings at the River.
In the Company of Women, by January Gill O’Neil.
Farewell, dear friend, and let us part, by Emily Dickinson.
Oh and one last one, Acknowledgements by Danez Smith is a crazily good poem. Too long to include as an image here but well worth a look.
Of course we are not finished on the theme of friendship. Of course we shall return to this theme.
But tell me, do you have your own favourite poem on friendship?
Or have you written something on friendship this week (or at any point) that you’d like to share? Lost friendship or otherwise.
Nelly x
Thank you Nelly! I’ve been grieving a lovely work friend who is about to leave the team. Your prompt got me trying to put in to words what it is about the special kind of friendship that is working alongside someone day to day and the little drip feeds of their life which is unlike ‘catch up friendship’ (that’s special in a different way)….
*Lament For My Favourite Work Friend*
I know we’ll keep in touch, but “keeping in touch” is such a different friendship to the tiny, daily refills of you that I will miss so much.
Like what you watched on telly last night, and your quiet, quirky take on it,
Our debrief chats after big team meetings (which we both know are the *real* meetings),
The evolving tales of your family I’ve never met but feel I know so well,
Perspective removed from my immediate friendship circle, your story and wisdom ahead of my own,
Your texts when I’m off sick telling me I haven’t missed much (unspoken code for you are missed),
DIY projects on walls I won’t see but feel I’ve witnessed on their journey.
In-the-moment chats about everything and nothing,
And comfortable silences with cups of tea placed into each others hands at random, perfect points in the day,
I know we’ll keep in touch, but “keeping in touch” is such a different friendship to the tiny, daily refills of you that I will miss so much.
https://open.substack.com/pub/angedisbury/p/lament-for-my-favourite-work-friend?r=2qii2&utm_medium=ios
I love this topic and I have a few lost friendships.. some that fizzled due to time and distance
But some more brutal ones where I can’t work it out. This is one that’s been in my notes app for a long while :
I keep making mistakes
But I don’t know what they are
Until someone slams the brakes
On friendships built
Without boundaries
And when they are set
They no longer want to be around me