I’m So Grateful For Lifelong Friends

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Friendship

Friendship is the ultimate form of love
Someone you think the world of
A love connection between two souls
A bond written on sacred scrolls
Someone you think the world of

Friendship is a love connection
Deeper than human affection
Always there for you in the best of times
Saviors in your most trying times
While accepting all your imperfections

Laughing, crying, living, dying
Shouldering all that is terrifying
A lifetime of love, a bond unbroken
No words ever need be spoken
Friends, you are the wind beneath my wings

What is friendship? Encyclopedia Britannica defines it like this: friendship, a state of enduring affection, esteem, intimacy, and trust between two people. In all cultures, friendships are important relationships throughout a person’s life span.

How is it that encyclopedias always seem to find a way to make the most meaningful human experiences sound like a classroom lesson taught by an AI robot?

My definition of friendship: Friendship is a love connection. Deeper than a mere handshake or a kiss on the cheek. Time and space do not alter these bonds. Nor do years of separation. A true friend will gladly share your happiest moments and your most trying times. A friend no matter the circumstances.

To quote Lou Gehrig — “I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth.” I have friends in my life that go back 65 years. I have more than a handful of friends that inspired the poem above. Many were in or at my wedding. And consoled me when my best friend, my wife, died. They have been there for the good and bad times. They will be in my heart for all time.

I continue to make new friends. I am gaining new experiences through them. Making new love connections. That is the ONLY REASON we are here. To spread love. To share love. Simply put — to be a good friend.© 2023 Joe Merkle All rights reserved. Originally published on Medium.com https://medium.com/lifeline-poetry/im-so-grateful-for-lifelong-friends-e5a94f60872e

March 14, 2023 Add Comment

Your Shadow on the Wall

Dancing in the dark

Photo by Martino Pietropoli on Unsplash

I’m just another ghost
In this lonely ghost town
Searching for what I’ve lost
Hoping to avoid a meltdown

Streets that once contained substance
Now avenues of by-gone memories
Oozing ethereal persistence
No longer resembling terrestrial reality

I drift among the pictures hung
Upon the hallway walls
Where many songs were sung
When your touch was my cure-all

Now it’s your shadow on the wall
I see it plainly, a shining landmark
My love’s port of call
As we dance in the dark

Originally published on Medium.com https://medium.com/p/5866c375a5d6

September 24, 2022 Add Comment Sticky

Life Is Love

My Wife Circa 1974

I had learned the easy things
how to laugh, and cry
how to work and play
but what a miraculous day
it was...

when I first laid eyes on you
and my mind abandoned me
went bounding light and fancy free
any sanity escaping me
it was...

the singular greatest event in my life
which as till now and forever shall remain
the miracle of you, my wife
the holy grail of my life
and so...

these words seem empty compared
to feelings so beyond explaining
all the blessings that you've brought to me
the greatest being that
life is...love

as this great adventure continues
and news horizons await beyond
windows filled with mystical vistas
you and I will step through the thresholds
unfettered by doubt, anchored by love

and so, my love, hand in hand
off we go to Adventureland
engulfed in crazy puppy love
still, after all these years
and so...let's go

August 5, 2021 Add Comment

HAPPENSTANCE

All I want to be
Is the first thing you see
As you open your eyes
When you can't disguise
That feeling inside

As a smile creeps into your eyes
As if somehow you're surprised
Of a new romance and 
I've just appeared by happenstance

Each day finds a new way
You hold the world at bay
As I lay in your arms
Kidnapped by your charms

July 28, 2021 Add Comment

Just To Let You Know

This poem’s just to let you know

How much my love grows

Everyday I’m with you

Every day I look in your eyes

I see the sunrise

Where does the time go

Slips away, never shows its face

Around our place

But the smiles last awhile

Anyway-any day

All the questions

In the caverns of your mind

Some day you will find

That love is the answer

To your dreams

To all your crazy schemes

That you tell me in the morning

That you sell me in the evening

With your kiss…with your kiss

June 29, 2021 Add Comment

Dragonfly

what answers unfold in your haphazard flight

if you could speak to me what mysteries might

you solve, how many perches must we alight

to splash in the Sound and the Light

fickle though your flight seems

it’s an inquiry of sorts, it learns to be

a means to seek a simpler path

a way home, home at last

here you dodge and here you dart

like an arrow shot from Cupid’s bow

meant to pierce each wayward heart

a weathervane to let us know

that love is haphazard at best

that the spirit within us never rests

that we must trust in this adventurous flight

to take us home to the Sound and Light

June 29, 2021 Add Comment

Lover’s Poem

Image by Pixaby

 When we meet 
 We shall touch the stars
 The little children will laugh at us
 And to each we shall teach love 

 And we’ll float on the soft summer breeze
 I’ll carve our initials in the clouds
 And in a fleeting moment
 That which not tangible shall succumb 

 And our love will become inimitable 

 We’ll explore the silver sum
 And search for the silver man
 And will mix the colors on the palette
 And paint the world 

 Then we’ll say our good-byes
 And no regrets will there be
 Only happy memories we share 
 And our initials in the clouds

April 25, 2021 Add Comment

Inhale

Photo by hrv.co.net

Inhale, Slowly, Deeply

Feel Your Chest Expand

Exhale, Mouth Wide

Upon Life’s Windowpane

Create New, A Canvas

Born From Within

Touch, Fingertip, Moist

Cold Upon The Glass

Begin, Search, For Colors

Of Your Soul’s Palette

Paint Life, Love, Encompass All

Reach, Expand, Your Consciousness

January 17, 2021 Add Comment

Square Pegs

If all the holes are round
Why did God make square pegs?
If we were all meant to conform
Why are there two genders and five races?

Some square pegs, to name a few…
Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed
DaVinci, Rembrandt, Picasso
Columbus, Newton, Einstein
The Founding Fathers of America
Beethoven, Bach, The Beatle’s Queen Elizabeth I, Susan B, Anthony, Rosa Parks

So as a parent, will you encourage your child to conform?
Or challenge conformity?

August 3, 2020 Add Comment

I Never Thought To Ask

Mom and Dad, there are so many things
I never thought to ask
I was busy then trying to answer who am I
Not wondering about the past

Now I find myself in my twilight years
Wishing once again you were still here
Just to come back to the feeling of home
That I’ve missed now for so many years

Time and space seem meaningless in moments
So clear to me now upon reflection
It’s not just your wisdom I yearn for again
It’s your hugs and kisses I shared so many times with you

Dad, I would ask if you were still here with me
What got you through each day while away
In World War II, never having met your newborn boy yet
And how badly you missed mom, the love of your life

And how you managed to glide through life
No matter what came along the way
With an easy grace and a smile on your face
Handshakes and hugs that lit the way

And Mom, I would ask of you
How you got through each day
With dad so far and in harm’s way
While raising your baby boy alone

These and so many things
I never thought to ask
I was busy then creating a life
Not wondering about the past

Both of you set the stage
For me to be the star in a life filled with love
For this my gratitude is limitless
Forever will you be in my heart

I understand that the two you
Were the building blocks that formed
Just who I am, the man I’ve become
It won’t be long now before we meet again

July 19, 2020 Add Comment