! ! Three Of My Friends Poem by Michael Shepherd

Yes, it’s a photo of the three of them –
it’s not so often I can get them all together;
they’re so much in demand…

This one’s Rosa. She has something
quite unique: she’s no great beauty, yet
she has that something which
we’ve given up trying to define:
let’s say, it’s, inner beauty…

her girl friends are devoted to her;
men can’t keep away from her:
when you’re with her, you feel yourself
to… shine? As if you too, are beautiful?
(Her ‘girls’ admit it; men,
they do not like to put a name to it…though
sometimes contemplate themselves her husband;
glow with imagined, noble pride;
then sigh, at their unworthiness;
can’t wait to see her once again…)

Here’s Cora.. I don’t see her much,
she’s in demand for every possible
committee or whatever… for
her innate goodness seems to grace,
to bless, bring harmony, to every
well-intentioned, sometimes rancorous,
committee that she sits on…often, chairs;
we sigh and say, what is it about her..?
She just brings out the best
in everybody… when you’re with her,
you love yourself; you never doubt
that you, too, always have the good of all
at heart..

This one’s Max. He’d be at his happiest
in the research lab, discoveries
uncovering themselves under his steady gaze
as if eager to be found…
yet such is his ability to pass on
that love of finding out,
he’s constantly in demand to lecture and to teach;
his students, past and present, stand in awe,
yet love him for himself: when you talk to him,
he listens to your every word,
his eyes, shining all the while; as if
beyond the words you stumble out,
he hears – always and only – truth itself…
and for a while, you feel you share
his clarity of mind...

Yes, I treasure that photo in its silver frame;
it’s so rarely that I get them all together;
but they themselves just love it when I do:
maybe you see it in the photo there?

For as I stood behind the camera, I saw,
there's such respect there, for each other;
as if they know they share
a something so incredible,
that it’s a joy too absolute to name;
I breathed the word: humanity.