POEM: When You Meet A Grieving Friend

When you meet
A grieving friend
Be like pine.
Offer her
Sturdy wooden
Presence - open
Arms like feathers -
Sway and creak -
Misery
Dances for her.
Cry your fresh,
Sweet sap –
Inch roots deeper
Into earth –
Let your heart shoot
A tendril
Toward open space –
Hold fast the earth
She cannot find
No matter what -
Be anchor,
Let her find
Home in rough
Quiet bark
That is an embrace.