When We Love a Friend

I hope you all enjoy my (very) amateur, (very) free-verse "poem". I'm not even sure what free verse is supposed to mean, but here it means it's free of both rhyme and rules! I think of pairs of words: "rhyme and rhythm" and "rhyme and reason", and I hope that this verse has a little smidgeon of the second halves of the pairs... Except for feeble and unsuccessful attempts to write rhymes as a child, this is only the second time I've tried my hand at poetry, and I can't believe I'm going public with this attempt. But it's from my heart, and a thank you to my friends for your friendship.

When We Love a Friend

When we love a friend, we want to be needed.
We wouldn't wish the one we love any needs,
In order for us to have needs to fill...
Not for anything in the world!
But if she has needs,
We want to know.

When we love a friend, we want to be helpful.
We may not always know the best things to do,
In order for us to be helpful...
We may even say the "wrong" thing.
But if we can be helpful,
We want to be there.

When we love a friend, we want to share.
We want to tell our stories, our joys and sorrows,
In order to hear her sympathy and her laughter...
We might even feel we've been a little selfish.
But we know she has stories, too, and
We want to hear them.

When we love a friend, we want to be thankful.
We want her to know how much it means to have her friendship,
In order to grow, to be a better person...
We may not always be able to show it,
But we want her to know that
We want to thank God...
When we love a friend.