for the prompt "On Friendship"

I might come up with something else, since I feel like this is not what a poem "On Friendship" was supposed to be like... but oh well. This was what I got out of the prompt. And I think it kind of does work from it. But whatever. This is it for now. Sorry.
Background info: It is something about one of my closest friendships, that ended when my friend died.



I've hidden the picture in my closet.

I found it, yesterday
while I was cleaning,
looking at things I once used
To decorate white-washed walls.
It was hiding,
innocuously,
under a map of Rome,
between a child's drawing
and a large print
of a sunset.

I knelt on the floor,
looking at the picture
for a while
a minute
a year.
Girls walked
laughing
past my door
as I sat
and looked
and remembered.

Someone outside my world would see:
A laughing face.
Nice background, green leaves, houses.
Out of focus.
The bad photographer
I confess
is me.

I look at this picture
and see:
Laughing, walking,
Chinese food, movies,
Racist jokes and holding hands.
And there, finally, hiding-
behind an unfocused tree, maybe-
words
and a train.

A dull ache at the back of my head.
Not painful, but sort of like
spinning around too fast...
Or maybe
the aftermath of pain,
the throbbing that doesn't exactly hurt,
but doesn't feel too nice
either.

A moment, just a moment,
where I considered the wall.
Empty wall everywhere
surrounding me...
Plenty of room
for a four by six photograph...
But no. A moment
and he was propped up in the back of my closet
smiling at my dirty laundry.
Smiling in the last moment of light
before...

...I slid the door shut
and sat down again
on the stained blue carpet.
Another group of giggling females paraded by,
and I wondered
Who is it
I'm ashamed of?


My friend

or myself?

Prayer for physical healing.

Father, Lord God, you are so good to us. You don't even have to wake us up in the morning, Lord, but you do, and you pay such close attention to us that you know our needs before we even bring them up. You are so good.

I would like to ask you now to grant healing of sickness. There is a flu going around campus, Lord, and it is a bad one, and it has been taking out people left and right, me and my friends included. Only you know the names of all those who have been affected, Jesus, those who are in pain and those who are soon to be in pain. Give us all healing, Father. Give us healing so we can go about our busy days and work for your glory unhindered by the various pains that come with the flu and incapacitate us. This includes any mental or emotional problems that may come about because of our weakened bodies, too, Lord. Let this pass quickly, and soon, so we can get back to what we need to get done.

I know that it is only you who can bring healing, Father, and without you we are helpless. You are the great Physician. Thank you for being so good that you listen to even our smallest complaints, things of the moment that ultimately do not even matter. We love you, Lord. Thank you for hearing us. And thank you for the healing that I know you are soon to give.

In your most powerful name, Jesus,

Amen.

Beginnings.

They start with a line of verse

A planted seed

A quiet word

A newborn’s cry.

These beginnings are the stuff

From which life is made

Not easy, maybe

But simple,

Uncomplicated.

Beginnings are the things we love most about life.

The beginning of something new

Fresh

Good

We rejoice in these sunrises

These occasions

These joys

Large and small

We celebrate the new

And wonder what life was like

Before the beginning.

But then there are endings.

We don’t like those.

Endings remind us

How temporary we are

The end of a friendship

                     A connection

                                   A story

              The end

                     Of a dream

                                   A love

                                            A life

The things that make us comfortable--

When they end,

When they’re lost,

We wail and cry

Resentful

And shake our fists

At God.

We ask why.

We are not good

At endings.

We look at sunsets:

Deep blue skies

Full of pinks and purples and golds

Trailed across the heavens

As the sun leaves the stars behind,

And we are lost in wonder

At the end of the day,

The beauty

In the end.

Yet at the end

Of a career

Of comfort

Of life

The last thing we think of doing is rejoicing.

The last thing we see is beauty.

Because what could ever be good

About

An ending?

A relationship ends, 

And friends flock

To sympathize, to comfort

As if this small thing

Were the end of all.

A house is lost.

Families huddle together

Fighting to understand

Why

As if a building

Were what make a home,

Home.

A good friend dies and those closest gather

To comfort each other, to bewail the

Meaningless

Death

To throw roses

And remember the one lost

As if there

Were no such thing as the soul.

We curse endings.

We bleed and 

Blame and

Wonder

What are we supposed to do

Now?

We forget

The endings

That grow into beginnings.

We forget the flower

Rising up out of the burnt and charred earth

Left by fire

Growing

Thriving,

The friend who appears

To pick up the pieces

Of a broken heart

To make new.

The old cliché is

It's only after the rain

That we appreciate

The sun...

It seems to me that

The old clichés

Often get it right.

We don't understand

And so we are upset

Confused

Afraid

Yet how would we recognize

Happiness

If we had never been sad?

How would we know

Home

If we had never been lonely?

    When a tree dies

                 Sometimes

                         A flower

                     Blooms in its place

           Snow melts

                        Leaving behind it

                                                 Spring

That's the beauty of life.

When we are lost

We just remember

Sometimes

The sweetest beginnings

Come after an end.

John 1

In the beginning,
There was the Word.

The Word was God
And was with God
From the beginning;
Without him nothing was made
That has been made.

In him was life,
The life and light
Of all mankind.
The light shines in the darkness,
And the darkness
Has not overcome it.
Can not overcome it.

This light,
The light that shines for all,
Entered into the world.
He was in the world,
And though it
Was made by him,
The world
Did not recognize him.
He came to that
Which was his own
But his own did not receive him.

Yet to all
Who did receive him,
To those
Who believed in his name,
He gave the right
To become children of God-
Children born,
Not of natural descent,
Nor of human decision,
Or a husband's will,
But born
Of God.

The Word became flesh
And made his dwelling
In the world
Among us.
We have seen his glory,
The glory of the one
And only Son
Who came from the Father,
Full of grace
And truth.

Invocation

Lord God, Creator of heaven and earth, thank you for this day. You are so perfect, Lord, and everything you've made proclaims your name. We are so insignificant next to your glory, Father, yet you are so good to us, and for this we thank you.

Bless this day, Lord, and bless this class. Help us to complete all the work we need to do, and to bring glory to your name in the process. You didn't even have to wake us up this morning, Lord, but you did, so let everything we do and say today bring honor to you.  Give us the strength to do everything that needs to be done, and the energy to do it well.

You are so good to us, Father. All glory belongs to you.

In Jesus' name we pray,
AMEN