Poem to a Beautiful Friend

With you

You opened me

to a deeper appreciation

of my own happiness

smiling in mirth and laughter.

With you

You've opened me

to seeing us both happy

and too, this rich enlivenment,

nourishes me most deeply.

I like you as me.

For, I trusted you

as unguarded retention

within the newly layered

creation of our thoughts –

You have meaning

in who I see you as

before me, around me

and within me.

You have meaning also

because in trusting you

I have verified

a larger admixture

of my own humanity

and wholeness.

I thank you as an equal.