Friendship

“The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately withot growing apart.” —Elisabeth Foley

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,
The mill-round of our fate appears
A sun-path in thy worth.

Me too thy nobleness had taught
To master my despair;
The fountains of my hidden life
Are through thy friendship fair.

Artwork: “Self-Portrait” by Rudolf Tewes, oil on canvas, 1906. Kunsthalle Bremen, Germany.