anon.JPG)
It's good
To have friends.
Stupid friends. Delicate friends.
Friends you have to wait for,
That overwhelm and bore you
all at once, giving advice
that everyone knows
in contradictive overflows
that no one sane
will understand.
It's good to have friends
like those on hand.
It's good
Because then,
even when no clear point defends
feeding them your patience and trust,
watching hours turn to dust while
They eat, laugh, stroll, talk
Beside you. Some day,
When you're dense & fractured &
can't seem to say
What feels sorely,
Pressingly true,
Those soft savants will spread
themselves
like blankets over dew.
“over dew” … overdue.
ReplyDeleteI'm so clever. ; )
*Thanks Brigitte (bikers), Kara (swingers), Angela (gazers), David (Fishers), Julie (sprinters), Cameron (buns-hunter), Julie (laughers & Miserables), Cristy (bridge-builders), and Haley Moran Lakeman (Dandelion tattoo) for making this collage full.
I was about to comment on another poem and it somehow got deleted so I decided to click on this one. This literally explains my life. I do not quite understand the structure of the poem but then again no one truly understands the relationships I have with my friends either. There is no "structure". We love past all boundaries and there in the beauty of our friendship, there's a fire. Not just a spark that will shortly die or be diminish through time but a fire that leaves ashes that represent remnants of good times filled with laughter. Times filled with tears of pure frustration and when I'm at my lowest of lows and I feel heartbroken and cold I know I can turn to that fire. I wish I was clever enough to articulate it just as you did. Also the colors in the collage make this collage!! It would not be the same in black and white. Love it!! Thank you- Rahje B.
ReplyDeleteSound-repetition scheme:
ReplyDeleteR
A
A
-
-
-
B
B
-
C
A
C
R
A
A
D
d
-
E
E
-
F
-
F.
Maybe that'll help you figure out your friends, RB ;)
From simply observing the physical flow of the words in the poem's structure, it appears to me that friendship is like a winding journey. From personal experience, I can definitely relate and attest to the fact that friendships aren't linear and don't have a prescribed path or destiny, other than what an individual may put forth into a friendship. Also, the collage, if I am correct in assuming so, seems to illuminate the importance of how friendships are put together from the details of memories experienced with friends. Though I have yet to go through all of the poems and collages on your blog, I am thoroughly enjoying what I have read so far. :) Sincerely, Nicolette O
ReplyDeleteFirst and foremost I have to stay I love the bare look of all your poems; I was attracted to read many of them just because of their physical appearance. This one especially, but then I read the actual content of the words and was further amazed. While reading through the poem I loved that I could relate and understand everything that you were talking about. Almost everyone experiences the things you explain in this poem. And yes the double meaning of “over due” was very clever. :p the collage was also very cool in my opinion. I loved all the different pictures displaying the feeling and images of a friendship. However I did not understand why the pictures were edited and made to look like neon colors. Another aspect of the poem I really enjoyed was the repetition of the words “it’s good” which is also the title. It made the poem very cohesive and made it flow more together even through the randomness of the structure. I loved this poem so much it made me go and read several more of your poems! Thank you so much for sharing!
ReplyDelete-Logan T
I dicked around with the colors, etc. to obscure peoples' faces (you never know which of your friends will appreciate - and which will be offended - by being stuck into a piece of art). So you'll see a lot of tweaked/distorted faces in these blog images.
Delete“It’s good to have friends.” It is a simple statement that we never reject as false, but sometimes, certain situations make us hesitate about its validity. Friendship is difficult to define, but I think you have done a wonderful job doing so with your words and structure that capture the many ups and downs in all relationships. The first time I read this poem, I was perplexed by the description of friends. From a technical and mechanical standpoint, these descriptions are nonsensical, but from a human and emotional standpoint, these contradictions accurately define the special people around us. I guess that’s what friendship is: something that makes sense only to the parties involved. Despite its complicated nature, friendships are always there to comfort us no matter how dark the times have become. They serve a simple but very crucial role in our everyday lives. Thank you for sharing this brilliant piece of truth!
ReplyDelete-Jane T.
"'It’s good to have friends.' It is a simple statement that we never reject as false" - some people might.
Delete"friendships are always there to comfort us no matter how dark the times have become" - go dark enough, you can burn most bridges. Friends have to be kept (times can go dark - but not interactions).
"They serve a simple but very crucial role in our everyday lives." I wouldn't call it simple. But crucial, I absolutely agree.
I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your poems! I think that I liked this one best because I could relate most to it. As high school students, we are bombarded with friends of all types, like ones that you describe in your first stanza. I don't always agree with each of friends, or enjoy being around them ALL the time, but no matter what happens, I know I will always love them and can rely on them for help and support. As earlier comments have also noted, the physical structure of the poem is perfect, as friendships are like a roller coaster, having their high points as well as their low ones. Your collage also mirrors the nature of friendships: full of adventure, craziness, and great times. The neon colors and overlapping images capture the feelings of chaos found in many friendships, as they are not solely made up of good times but also bad ones. In the end, each experience just brings friends closer and closer until "no clear point defends feeding them your patience and trust." I really enjoyed the message of this poem as well as your others and will definitely be following your poems in the future.
ReplyDeleteThis poem is awesome. It is universal which is incredibly hard to do in present day. It applies to anyone who has ever interacted with others, so basically everyone. I love the structure. It is chaotic and organized at the same time, which is a perfect description for friendship. Friendship is rocky at times and comforting at others. It is unpredictable as you can lose or gain a friendship within a matter of minutes. This unpredictable nature is seen in the structure. You have to be vulnerable to have true friends. You have to allow others the ability to hurt you. While this "hurt" is rarely all consuming it is still pain. In order to have friends who can truly help you, you must have friends who can easily bring you down. It is a trade off that people make constantly. I love the ending to this poem. The tone change creates an epiphany of sorts. It is the "aha!" moment where you realize that it was all worth it. This ending represents the good in mankind. Humans are far from perfect. We may not say the right thing at all times but when it really counts we are there to be "blankets" for our friends. I really enjoyed reading this poem. Keep them coming!
ReplyDelete"In order to have friends who can truly help you, you must have friends who can easily bring you down." I don't think that anyone MUST have friends who can easily bring them down. Choose your company wisely -- it's one thing to accept friends as sometimes a seeming waste of time and energy ... but never a weight or a burden : that's different.
DeleteFriends should be dependably valuable when it counts (imperfect as they may all be).
The thing that struck me first about this poem was its structure. The almost snake-like winding of the words immediately brings forth a cyclical idea, much like the cyclical nature of friendship. Friends come and go, friends' support waxes and wanes; the consistency you find in friendship is its infallible nature of change (although that almost sounds oxymoronic).
ReplyDeleteThe separation of the phrase "It's good to have friends like those on hand" also stood out to me. Strange, at first, that it follows the section describing friends as boring, repetitive, and altogether unhelpful. Yet somehow, at second read, you realize that those qualities are what you get in friendship. After so long, what more does a friend have to offer that is NEW? All you can ask from these people who used to be brand-new is for them to continue to do what they do.
The collage is also interesting, the shock of contrasting colors immediately struck my fancy. All the pictures have two or more people together, enjoying themselves in some way or other. But the collage also has images spliced together, overlapping one another. I think this captures the complexity of friendship. It's never as simple as one person meeting another, having similar interests, and supporting each other with love and kindness from that day forward. There are other people, there are unexpected situations. Needless to say, no friendship can be precisely planned or predicted.
Thank you for all this to think about!
-Sabrina Mongiello
I was drawn to this poem because of the subject matter of freinds. Connecting with peers is beyond intriguing to me because of the idea of perception. Until mind-reading becomes available, no one knows what goes on in the minds of others. Perception is a mystery that craves my attention. This poem touches off the many different aspects of friendship and the many different reactions to said friendship. The structure of this poem is random, there is no pattern or definitive standards it follows, representing the infinite amount of different ideas each friend holds. We surround ourselves with friends to gain insight into the minds of those around us, but also from a strategic standpoint to have the minds with different outlooks, different creative processes, and different opinions help us solve the problems we are struggling with. The curvature of the structure reminded me of one potential figure hugging another, and then visa versa, thus giving support. Human contact can go a long way and the warmth of this structure reminds me of the warmth human contact gives. The last two lines you wrote at the end the poem form a simile, and to go even further, a comparison to nature’s “blanket over dew”. This immediately makes me think of the morning sun being the blanket that covers dew. Sunlight arrives in the morning and evaporates the little droplets of dew, thus giving warmth to each new day. I had to look up “Savants” in the dictionary to find out a savant is a person of extensive learning (thank you for adding to my vocabulary), but knowing that I created this image of my friends, who contain all the answers I could not find on my own, coming to the rescue and drying up my problems, like the sun dries up dew. I also want to go back to the beginning of the poem to the first line where you say “To have friends.”. As I am currently taking Spanish I know that anything that starts with to (to run, to eat, to live) is the infinitive for which to be defined. Which makes me think this whole poem is a definition for “To have friends”. I resonated with your take on the importance of friends, that sometimes they can get on your nerves, but in the end, adding the perception of others to your repertoire of thoughts is extremely beneficial.
ReplyDeleteThank you,
Alyssa Zucker
I'm glad that you enjoyed and connected with this poem.
DeleteI am going to use the remainder of my response-space to tease you, because (A) it's late, and (2) you said that my poem's structure is "random, there is no pattern or definitive standards it follows":
"Connecting with peers is beyond intriguing to me" -- What is beyond intriguing? Discombobulating?
"...because of the idea of perception" -- What about the perception of ideas?
"Perception is a mystery that craves my attention" -- Mysteries whose cravings you can intuit are ... beyond my perception.
At first glance, I notice the curving structure of “It’s Good” and how the words and phrases seem to wind about the page. I took it to represent a kind of journey through the many friendships one may have throughout their lives. I know from personal experience that friends come and go and that it is alright to move on from a friendship when it becomes toxic or when two people simply grow apart. The adjectives describing friends in the first stanza have a negative connotation that seem to convey that friends are a burden, but the line “It’s good to have friends/like those on hand” reveal that friends can be annoying and sensitive and frustrating but in the end, they’re essential. No matter their faults, friends provide comfort and a source of laughter and happiness unlike any other relationships. I especially enjoyed reading the last stanza because it sums up the idea of the poem perfectly. Even when friends seem pointless or get on your nerves, you will look back and truly appreciate the happiness they provided, the laughter you both shared, and a person in which to tell your troubles and secrets.
ReplyDeleteThank you,
Lilly Fabian
You are welcome.
Delete_Josh
I interpreted this poem as a suggestion to keep certain people a part of your life because of what they will essentially bring to you. When you say “it’s good to have friends that overwhelm you and bore you all at once” I took that as you have to have complexity in your life to keep you going. Your friends need to bring you emotions and sensations on both sides of the spectrum. You will also have those friends that give you hackneyed advice that comes from movie scripts that make absolutely no sense in the context of your situation, but you need those kinds of friends. I thought your reasoning for having those kinds of friends is the ultimate award of being loved and having the benefits that friends bring you. The line “watching hours turn to dust while they eat, laugh, stroll, talk” is relatable because good friends are those that can do absolutely anything and it still means everything because you are able to pass the time with them. I interpreted the end in two different ways. In one way I thought it meant that, one day when you are the one that is hurt and upset about something and you don’t really want to talk about it, friends will still be there to soak up your tears like blankets over dew. The other meaning I interpreted was that when you are the one that finally has a problem, after giving them all of your patience; they will be able to support you, even if the support is overdue.
ReplyDeleteI meant it both ways. Well-read.
DeleteI think this poem is very relatable to a lot of people. We all want friends in our lives because they are the people we spend most of our time with. I like how the diction is simple, yet the idea of friendship is complex. The poem itself is easy to comprehend, but friendship is sometimes puzzling. You said, friends “overwhelm and bore you,” which I agree with because friends are a unique bunch that always keep you on your feet. The main point of this poem is that it’s important to have friends because they are the people we rely on to have fun, watch stupid movies, cry with, and do nothing with. It’s important to cherish the friends you have because some day you might need them for moral support. The lines: “When you’re dense and fractured and can’t seem to say what feels sorely, pressingly true, those soft savants will spread themselves like blankets over dew,” are extremely relatable because that is what friends are for. Being a high school student, it’s pretty common to break down and cry, but having friends by your side makes everything seem a little less worse.
ReplyDeleteless worse ... better? Keep on the sunny-side, Sarah.
DeleteI love this poem because I completely understand the type of friends that you're talking about. Friends can sometimes feel like a burden or annoy you with their opinions or idiosyncrasies, but this poem reminds me that having friends who are there for you is really important, and their friendship should be valued regardless of your differences. Because some day, when you need someone the most, those friends will be there for you no matter what. Reading this allowed me to put these things into perspective, your friends should be appreciated because they may be your support system, and you there’s.
ReplyDeleteThis poem exemplifies a strong outlook about the importance of friendship that I find very special. Friends are described in this poem through very contrasting words, as they are said to embody characteristics that make them boring yet overwhelming and stupid while delicate. In doing so, this shows the dynamic aspect of relationships that are imperative to friendships and that I personally value very much. This poem prompted me to evaluate not only my relationships with my friends individually, but our dynamic relationships all together as a whole.
ReplyDeleteThe shape of this poem reminds me of a river, representing the ebb and flow of friendships, like how friends go back and forth; friends banter back and forth and also take turns helping each other when they are in need, like when the “soft savants will spread themselves like blankets over dew” to protect you from the harshness of life. At the same time, like a river approaching the same destination, friends go down a shared path, with unique experiences and inside jokes pertaining to their specific relationship together that “that no one sane will understand.” The shape bends right but slowly returns back to the left, beginning and returning to the statement of “It’s good”, showing how when you drift off of your path or get lost, your friends are there to bring you back. Having friends is something nearly everyone can relate to, and makes this poem relatable to nearly everyone on earth; friendship is something special to be treasured and appreciated because it contributes to one’s happiness and keeps one sane.
ReplyDeleteI feel like this poem captures the distantly idiosyncratic yet closely personal characteristics we see and feel in our friends. While each of our friends may express the same opinions and ideas in a thousand different ways, this disparity in itself is what should be valued. The “contradictive overflows” of thought would have no meaning coming out of the mouth of someone other than that particular friend, and as they “eat, laugh, stroll, and talk” beside you in simultaneously detached and intimate connection, the complex feelings of camaraderie bubble up to the surface as you realize the true similarities between you and your friend. Friends are mirrors, mirrors which teach us about ourselves through the reflection we see—whether than reflection is our own faces staring back at us or the twisted smiles of the “soft savants” we relate to, we find a sacred part of ourselves in the souls of each and every one of these images.
ReplyDeleteThis poem resonate with me deeply because I feel that some of the most influential, supportive and vital people to my life are my friends. In one line, JK says friends “[give] advice that everyone knows in contradictive overflows that no one sane will understand”, which I can connect to, as my best friend keeps me sane, gives me advice, is there for me through thick and thin and we experience life together, taking things on as a team. We have deep talks late at night and hypothesize about the creation of mankind or contemplate the meaning of our lives and the ones in different dimensions that sound insane voicing it, but it’s less insane when I am with her. So in the end, as humans are sitting here on Earth biding our time, it is truly good to have close friends to kill time with before the inevitable.
ReplyDelete-Olivia Blum