Words are My Friends

Words are my friends
             Sounds and syllables borrowed from sea shores
             And winds whispering across a lonely canyon,
             Or sudden storms frightening trees and little birds.

Words are my friends
             Born in silence and boyhood wanderings,
             Erupting from caves and rocks and city streets,
             Or seeping from wounds and a face wrinkled too soon.

Words are my friends
             Crawling from dreams and forgotten memories,
             Cursing at pain and the deaths I did not understand,
             Ready to hide or reveal as I bade them.

Words have carried my love
             Betrayed my enmity and fear,
             Healed wounds or inflicted them,
             Shared secrets or sheltered me from everyone.

Words are my friends.


James Kavanaugh
Walk Easy on the Earth, E. P. Dutton, New York, 1979