Keeping Company With Words Poem by Tricia Mae Chua

I am lonely again
So I take up my pen
And keep company with words.
These words on a page
Are something at least.
Familiar forms and lines
On a vast canvass of white.
Supportive friends
Providing consolation
through this shared experience—
That just as they exist
On this blank page,
So do I in this emptiness
around me.

Words from my own hand,
Words in a book,
Good friends they are
Wherever you find them
Offering ample distraction
Or comfort enough from knowing
That there they are present with me
Together in the silence.

If you care enough to listen
If you care enough to approach
You will hear them,
Hear them leading me
In a new song of transformation
A song of life, of love
Amidst the pain and the sorrow,
And a song of hope and peace—
All shall be well,
All shall be well.

Bowie, MD/ February 14,2009/ 10: 04 PM/ St. Valentines Day