A Friend

My mother-in-law writes me every week. She always tells me she has nothing interesting to say, but I enjoy just hearing about what's happening. She also sends me great quotes, stories and poems. I'm not a big poetry fan but I liked this one. It describes so many people who have influenced my life; my in-laws, my family, my friends and my wife, especially my wife.

Let me share it with you,

I love you,
Not only for what you are
But for what I
When I am with you

I love you
Not only for what
You have made of yourself
but for what
You are making of me

I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can't help
Dimly seeing there.
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find.

I love you because you
are helping me to make
of the lumber of my life
not a tavern
but a temple;
cut of works
of my every day
Not a reproach
but a song.

I love you
because you have done
more than any creed
could have done
to make me good,
and more than any fate
could have done
to make me happy.

You have don it
without a touch,
without a word,
without a sign.
You have done it
by being yourself.
Perhaps that is what
being a friend means,
After all...
Roy Croft