Sonnet

"I finally realized that friendship is not a remedy for loneliness. Loneliness is a part of our experience and if we are looking for relief from loneliness in friendship, we are only going to frustrate the friendship. Friendship, camaraderie, intimacy, all those things, and loneliness live together in the same experience." -Rich Mullins

My instrument, singing a lonely strain
Reaching of her voice, clear and sharp to tell.
To bring in tune, in step, to make her tame
No need there; her brave music does not quell

And yet I see, beauty in harmony
His low tones join, two voices pitch'd as one.
Tandem, complex tones, grace is plain to see
What can be said when two are joined, and hum

Yet even as we two this newness do
Create he cannot carry me, or save.
Mistakes of mine, they are my own to choose
My hands do grasp, and each to our own clave*.

In life's repasts, companion and alone
These two do live together: familiar and unknown.


*clave, n: one of a pair of wooden sticks or blocks that are held one in each hand and are struck together to accompany music and dancing.