Poems (Jordan)/Friends

by Rebecca Queen Jordan

For works with similar titles, see Friends.

FRIENDS

Though years may stretch their lives between,
 True friends must surely meet,
And recognize each other, when
 They face to face shall greet.
They know by subtle inner sense;
 By touch of soul to soul;
By Life's unerring evidence—
 Two halves shall make a whole.

'Tis quite impossible to make
 Acquaintances as friends;
Such lives but cross because they take
 One road tow'rd diff'rent ends.
Ah, lives in truth, must fitly meet,
 And journey side by side,
Each one the other makes complete,
 And naught can them divide.

New friends an introduction need
 Outside our life's closed door;
Not so with spirits Love has wed,
 They always know before;
Their introduction is within,
 And needs no outward sign,
For hearts their wedded years begin
 When God their lives doth join.

And friends can never, never part,
 Though miles may lie between,
They still are close in mind and heart
 As they have ever been,
For "what they are to us, is there,"
 As one has said, "alway."
If not all time, all life we share
 In an unbroken day.

We have real kinsfolk, ev'rywhere,
 Upon the unmapped globe,
Our soul's true life with us they share
 Unmasked of fleshly robe;—
Some here; some just beyond our sight,
 To wait till they may bid
Us welcome to that land of light,
 Now by Earth's shadows hid.