Inspirational Poems on Friendship and Soul Friendship
Inspirational poems on friendship and the experience of soul friendship is a key feature at this personal development and beyond blog so let me share some inspirational poems on friendship. Friendship is also a key aspect of all our lives. These inspirational poems are those written by famous poets. This sharing of my choice of inspirational poems on friendship will include that aspect of friendship called Anam cara - meaning soul friendship. Friends are the ones who are always with us whatever the circumstances. I think if you are graced to have friends enough to count on one hand that you are blessed. The best way to have a friend is to be a friend. The best way is to be a friend is to honour the essence of yourself and in that way you will always tend to honour the other.
Two Girls with Oleander – Gustav Klimt
A Poem about what Friendship is
My mother was a good friend to me when she gave me a book that I still have some thirty years after. I go back and read it on occasion when I want to read an inspirational poem on friendship. This first inspirational poem about friendship is from the best selling book called the Prophet by the poet and artist Khalib Gibran. It is a series of poems whereby the wise man (the Prophet) is asked to speak to his community. The people are grieving his leaving them in order to return to his homeland. They know what they are losing and he, the Prophet seeks to ease their pain of such loss by leaving them with inspired words. Here is what the Prophet says on Friendship.
Friendship
And a youth said, “Speak to us of Friendship.”
Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.
And he is your board and your fireside.
For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.
When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the “nay” in your own mind, nor do you withhold the “ay.”
And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;
For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unclaimed.
When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.
And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.
And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.
Khalil Gibran
.
Inspirational Poems on Friendship and Love
Love is like the wild rose-briar,
Friendship like the holly-tree –
The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms
But which will bloom most constantly?
The wild-rose briar is sweet in the spring,
Its summer blossoms scent the air;
Yet wait till winter comes again
And who will call the wild-briar fair?
Then scorn the silly rose-wreath now
And deck thee with the holly’s sheen,
That when December blights thy brow
He may still leave thy garland green.
by Emily Bronte
Friendship is the mind’s readiness,
The heart’s willingness
and the life’s oneness.Shi Chinmoy
Inspirational Poem on Soul Friendship (Anam cara)
Pygmalion and the Image – The Soul Attains - Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Finally here is a poem by a soul friend who I never actually met but who has accompanied me along this way of inspirational poetic life. This is a poem by one who was a true soul friend to those who where graced to be able to share the beauty and grace of his poetic heart. This is the poet and Celtic scholar John Donohue writing in this poem
Beannacht (The Blessing)
On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.
John O’ Donohue
The above are some of the many inspirational poems that have been written on friendship. This personal development and beyond blog invites you into the beauty and power of the inspiration that you are here to be. You may not be a poet but at the higher levels of personal and spiritual development the heart will express its essence through the power of poetry. It is the symbolic language of the soul. This is why you find that the power of poetry is often there to support us when we journey to threshold places during life’ transitions. Let me finish with a friendship quote to invite you to remember to be a friend and to be a good friend to the person, and beyond the person, that love intends you to be.
“Friendship… is not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t
learned anything.”
-Muhammad Ali
OTHER GREAT CONTENT
Here is some other material that will further your personal and spiritual development and your understanding of the various stages of spiritual development.
inspirational poetry
THE SOUL JOURNEY – Spiritual growth programs guide you on The Soul Journey. It and many spiritual ebooks will support your growth by developing more soul consciousness.
STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS – Video about the various states of consiousness.
PHILOSOPHERS NOTES – The ultimate personal growth tool. Giving you more wisdom in less time. The essential teachings of 100 optimal living books condensed into convenient 6-page PDFs and 20-minute MP3s.
Spiritual Friendship – Finding Soul Friendship
The ramp into our “acre of diamonds” is now firm underfoot where before it was a sea of mud. Murphy, our border collie/spaniel cross runs excitedly by my side. We are on our way to release the chickens from the coup. They are to be fed porridge oats in milk. Murphy has become an honorary chicken. He has been self-appointed. He now eats with the hens and cockerels as I give them their long awaited breakfast. They are now together, dog and birds, loving this life that is secure and satisfying for them.
I am becoming clearer. I am becoming more integrated and more know of the flow of this life. I am becoming a soul friend. I am becoming what is known in the Celtic tradition an Anam Cara. This translates as Anam meaning “soul” and Cara meaning “friend.” Like our beautiful dog Murphy I am busy rounding up different aspects of my less integrated self. These are pieces that are like different chickens within a roost. I gently bring them together in love and acceptance. I imagine myself sitting atop a chicken coop with my chicken friends and we would debate various life questions.
We might ask “What does it mean to be a seeker after soul.” We would squawk about our inner life. We would peck at the question “is the unexamined life worth living?” We would joke about what happened when the chicken crossed the road. More seriously we would scratch in the earth to query that existential question, “What came first – the chicken or the egg?”
One of our favourite hens (and I have to acknowledge I do have favorites) is Boddica. She is fearless. She would be the hen to ask fierce questions. She is the hen equivalent of a soul friend. She probes your knowing and understanding of who you really are. She might ask, “What does an Anam Cara do? In answer to Bodica`s question I would humbly reply thus.
A
n Anam Cara loves your essence.
They see you beyond your mask. This is the mask of persona. This is what you call personality. They see beyond the fear. They see the absence of love. This is love you withdraw from others and yourself. This is the love that is your real power. This does not mean they have to like YOU. You are the one that gets in the way of soul. You soul is the light of love and it needs light. It needs the lightness of being. An Anam Cara will remind you simply “to be.”
An Anam Cara lives close to the land.
They might be found roosting with chickens. They love the elements of fire, water, earth and air. They are elemental beings although they are more down to earth than mental. Some might consider they exhibit opposite traits. They love sensuality and sexuality. They love the play of Eros. This takes them on the wing. An Anam Cara will remind you to come to your senses and be sensational.
An Anam Cara guides you to the presence you are
.They are people of the silence. They listen. They do not debate. They do not fill you up with knowledge. They transmit the knowing of love. They touch you with beauty. This is not their beauty but the beauty of the Beloved. They move in the world as nobodies of import. They do not puff up your ego. They may build your ego up. They do so in order that you can disappear. This is in order that you can fly the coop. This is so you can enter the joy of leaving the prison house of never being enough.
An Anam Cara reminds you of what is important.
They guide you to knowing who you are. They take you into what are called in Ireland “thin places.” They take you to the edge. They coax you to the edge. When you are trusting enough they push you. They know this is the only way for you to learn to fly. They know you are an eagle that was brought up in a society of chickens. The Anam Cara will take you soaring. The very air that will take you higher is learning trust and faith in your essential goodness.
An Anam Cara takes you to the source
You will be taken beyond time and space to the very souse of your being. This will be done using different techniques depending on which Anam Cara you talk with. There will be techniques to take you out of the constant chatter of the coop into the light heartedness of life beyond the chicken wire. These techniques take you into ease and allow you to give up dis-ease.
An Anam Cara will affirm YOU.
You will be told that YOU are forever enough. This is because the Anam Cara knows that you are forever enough. They have seen beyond the limitation of the ego. They know the prison house of the little self. They know you hold the key to liberation. Only they might tell you that the door is always open. It was and never will be shut to you. They have trust that “all is well and all manner of things shall be well.”
An Anam Cara does not really care.
They know you are always held in the hand of the Beloved. They are not here to do anything for or to you. They are only there to facilitate your discovery that you are always enough. They know that what you need is not more of anything but a great big helping of “no thing.” This gives your soul true rest. This is where you give up trying to live life and become life abundant. You become the flow of the essential. Nothing matters because it all matters. Ultimately they take you to love of soul.
So this is how I would answer my Anam Cara soul hen. Would she be satisfied? I am not sure. I know she would think I have avoided the real question. “What comes first? – the chicken or the egg.” I compensate by tenderly gathering her up in my arms. I stroke her beautiful chicken head. I tell her, “I love you.” I tell her, “You are a forever enough hen.” She goes off and lays another golden egg. I leave the coup. I leave this Chicken Coup for the Soul and return up the ramp to our cottage. I am gathered in. I leave Murphy to debate the rudiments of flying. He is on the edge. He is excited. One day soon he too hopes to fly. The question is, “Which soul hen will do the pushing.” Blessings upon you and those you love and do not love.
OTHER GREAT CONTENT
Here is some other material that will further your personal and spiritual development and your understanding of the various stages of spiritual development.
anam cara
NEW DIMENSIONS – Over the years, a wealth of practical knowledge and perennial wisdom has accumulated in the audio archives of New Dimensions, a virtual treasure trove of timeless wisdom.
SOUL PROGRESS – Wonderful articles on spiritual life and spiritual living including the most sought after goals for individuals walking the spiritual path
THE HERO’S JOURNEY – Video that outlines the personal and spiritual development called the Hero’s Journey