Are you looking for a poem for a good friend of yours?
Maybe you combed through stacks of greeting cards with pithy friendship sentiments, but you’ve yet to find a poem that does your grateful heart justice.
Next, you sit with a blank page, ready to put your own thoughts into words.
But the words won’t come.
Or when they do, you quickly reject them.
The thing is, you don’t need perfect words for deep friendship poems — whether you borrow someone else’s or write your own,
How Can I Express My Love to My Best Friend?
If you have at least one friend you can count on to be there for you and to love you even when you’re hardest to be around, you have something millions of people long for. And it’s worth more than all the material success you could imagine.
If you don’t know this, you probably wouldn’t be looking for ways to express your love and gratitude to them. And some of the best ways don’t even need words.
Check on them with a text, email, or phone call to see how they’re doing;
Drop by with something comforting when they’re sick or feeling low;
Celebrate their wins with them and be there to help them through losses;
Help and encourage them to take good care of themselves (not just others).
One of the ways to do that last thing is to help them out when they need a break, even if it’s just to take a shower when there’s a new baby in the house, or they’ve been working non-stop to finish a project for work.
How Do You Write a Best Friend Poem?
You’ve decided on putting your thoughts into poetic language. You even have a tentative title for the piece you’re working on: “A Poem for My Best Friend.”
And that’s all you’ve got so far.
It’s not that you can’t think of any words to put into it; if anything, the thoughts come too quickly in a jumbled mess of angsty gratitude.
So, if you’re determined to write a poem, how do you begin to make sense of it all?
Set a timer for 10-15 minutes and write down whatever’s in your head (no filter);
Take a break to give yourself some distance from the words on the page;
Come back to it and circle or highlight the parts you want to keep;
Repeat steps 1-3 until you have enough saved content with a unifying theme;
Arrange those phrases in a way that feels natural to you.
Your finished poem doesn’t have to rhyme. In fact, if you’re as allergic to forced rhyme as we are, it’s best to stick with phrasing that feels authentic to you without any conscious attempt at rhyme or rhythm.
If you’d rather share something written by a famous poet, we’ve included some of those in the following collection. Read through each poem carefully and see if any call out to you or get your own ideas flowing.
Deep Best Friend Poems
#1 — “I Want to Apologize”
“i want to apologize to all the women i have called beautiful before i’ve called them intelligent or brave i am sorry i made it sound as though something as simple as what you’re born with is all you have to be proud of when you have broken mountains with your wit from now on i will say things like you are resilient, or you are extraordinary not because i don’t think you’re beautiful but because i need you to know you are more than that.”
— Rupi Kaur
#2
Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks Degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.
—Elie Wiesel
#3
If we knew each other better, You and I and all the rest, Seeing down beneath the surface To the sorrows all unguessed, We would quit our cold complaining And a hand of trust extend, If we knew each other better. We would count each one a friend.
— Poet Unknown
#4
One measure of friendship consists not in the number of things friends can discuss but in the number of things they need no longer mention
— Clifton Fadiman
#5 — “Your Catfish Friend”
“I’d love you and be your catfish friend and drive such lonely thoughts from your mind and suddenly you would be at peace, and ask yourself, “I wonder if there are any catfish in this pond? It seems like a perfect place for them.”
“Make me laugh over coffee, make it a double, make it frothy so it seethes in our delight. Make my cup overflow with your small happiness. I want to hoot and snort and cackle and chuckle. Let your laughter fill me like a bell. Let me listen to your ringing and singing as Billie Holiday croons above our heads.”
“What is the greatest gift? Could it be the world itself—the oceans, the meadowlark, the patience of the trees in the wind? Could it be love, with its sweet clamor of passion? Something else—something else entirely holds me in thrall. That you have a life that I wonder about more than I wonder about my own.“
“The Arabs used to say, When a stranger appears at your door, feed him for three days before asking who he is, where he’s come from, where he’s headed. That way, he’ll have strength enough to answer. Or, by then you’ll be
Friendship needs no studied phrases, polished face, or winning wiles; Friendship deals no lavish praises, Friendship dons no surface smiles. Friendship follows Nature’s diction, Shuns the blandishments of Art, Boldly severs truth from fiction, Speaks the language of the heart. Friendship favors no condition, Scorns a narrow-minded creed, Lovingly fulfills its mission, Be it word or be it deed. Friendship cheers the faint and weary, Makes the timid spirit brave, Warns the erring, lights the dreary, Smooths the passage to the grave. Friendship – pure, unselfish friendship, All through life’s allotted span, Nurtures, strengthens, widens, lengthens, Man’s relationship with man.
— Unknown
#10 — “A Time to Talk”
When a friend calls to me from the road And slows his horse to a meaning walk, I don’t stand still and look around On all the hills I haven’t hoed, And shout from where I am, What is it? No, not as there is a time to talk. I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground, Blade-end up and five feet tall, And plod: I go up to the stone wall For a friendly visit.
— Robert Frost
#11 — “To me, fair friend, you never can be old” (Sonnet 104)
To me, fair friend, you never can be old, For as you were when first your eye I ey’d, Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold, Have from the forests shook three summers’ pride, Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turn’d, In process of the seasons have I seen, Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn’d, Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green. Ah! yet doth beauty like a dial-hand, Steal from his figure, and no pace perceiv’d; So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand, Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceiv’d: For fear of which, hear this thou age unbred: Ere you were born was beauty’s summer dead.
— William Shakespeare
#12 — “Success”
I hold no dream of fortune vast, Nor seek undying fame. I do not ask when life is past That many know my name. I may not own the skill to rise To glory’s topmost height, Nor win a place among the wise, But I can keep the right. And I can live my life on earth Contented to the end, If but a few shall know my worth And proudly call me friend.
— Edgar A. Guest
#13 — “How Many, How Much?”
“How many slams in an old screen door? Depends how loud you shut it. How many slices in a bread? Depends how thin you cut it. How much good inside a day? Depends how good you live ’em. How much love inside a friend? Depends how much you give ’em.”
And a youth said, “Speak to us of Friendship.” Your friend is your needs answered. He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving. And he is your board and your fireside. For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace. When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the “nay” in your own mind, nor do you withhold the “ay.” And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart; For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed. When you part from your friend, you grieve not; For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain. And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit. For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught. And let your best be for your friend. If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also. For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill? Seek him always with hours to live. For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness. And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.
— Khalil Gibran
#15 — “In Tune”
I don’t remember when I first began To call you “friend.” One day, I only know, The vague companionship that I’d seen grow So imperceptibly, turned gold, and ran In tune with all I’d thought, or dared to plan. Since then, you’ve been to me like music, low, Yet clear; a fire that throws its warm, bright glow On me as on each woman, child, and man, And common thing that lies within its rays; You’ve been like wholesome food that stays the cry Of hungry, groping minds; and like a star – A self-sufficient star – you make me raise My utmost being to a higher sky, In tune, like you, with earth, yet wide, and far.
— Florence Steigerwalt
#16 — “Best Friend”
I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you because you have done more than any creed could have done to make me good, and more than any fate could have done to make me happy. You have done it without a touch, without a word, without a sign. You have done it by being yourself. Perhaps that is what being a friend means, after all.
Love is like the wild rose-briar, Friendship like the holly-tree The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms But which will bloom most constantly? The wild-rose briar is sweet in the spring, Its summer blossoms scent the air; Yet wait till winter comes again And who will call the wild-briar fair? Then scorn the silly rose-wreath now And deck thee with the holly’s sheen, That when December blights thy brow He may still leave thy garland green.
— Emily Bronte
#18 — “May our friendship last forever”
May our friendship last forever; May I sail upon your sea. May we go through life together; May there always be a “we.” May I be your endless sky; May you breathe my gentle air. May you never wonder why Each time you look for me, I’m there. May we be for each a smile Like the warm, life-giving sun; Yet when we’re in pain awhile, May our suffering be one. May we share our special days, The happiness of one for two; And if we must go separate ways, Let my love remain with you.
— Nicholas Gordon
# 19 — “Old Friends”
Though you are in your shining days, Voices among the crowd And new friends busy with your praise, Be not unkind or proud, But think about old friends the most: Time’s bitter flood will rise, Your beauty perish and be lost For all eyes but these eyes.
— William Butler Yeats
Sad Best Friend Poems that Make You Cry
#20 — “It Would Be Better”
Oh, my friend, it would be better If to those we love, we gave Tender words while they were with us Than to say them o’er a grave! Many a heart is hungry, starving, For a little word of love; Speak it then, and as the sunshine Gilds the lofty peaks above, So the joy of those who hear it Sends its radiance down life’s way, And the world is brighter, better, For the loving words we say. Loving words will cost but little, As along through life we go; Let us, then, make others happy, — If you love them, tell them so.
— Eben E. Rexford
#21 — “Out of the Cold”
Marriage for me was never about Finding someone to take care of me. More than anything, I want A friend who will be there Even when they know me better than most. I want to be married to my best friend. If I can’t have that, Independence is the devil on my shoulder, Saying, “Too bad that didn’t work out. “But at least you’ve got me.”
— S.E. Lentz
#22 — “Friend”
A friend is one who needs us and one whom we need. Around us may be many whose companionship we enjoy, but were they suddenly to drop out of their places there would be no soreness, no sense of deprivation, no lack of comfort. We do not need them, neither do they need us. A friend is one to whom we cling, though many leagues of space separate us. Though days pass with no sight of his face or word from his pen, we know our loved ones love us and that when we meet again We will be on the same old terms: we shall begin where we left off. A friend is one in whom we can confide. The secret chambers of our soul open to his touch on the latch. Thousands imagine their friends are numbered by scores, but if subjected to these tests every one of them would fall into the great sea of common humanity.
“Lying, thinking Last night How to find my soul a home Where water is not thirsty And bread loaf is not stone I came up with one thing And I don’t believe I’m wrong That nobody, But nobody Can make it out here alone.”
“why be evasive when you can listen to an audio book about a biologist on a mysterious expedition to Area X an area cut off from civilization today I’ve spoken to no one and I feel fine but feelings aren’t facts my friends and I’ve eaten the last of the cheese and table water crackers and I have no salary but I will hold you”
— Ali Power
#25 — “To the Oppressors”
“Now you are strong And we are but grapes aching with ripeness. Crush us! Squeeze from us all the brave life Contained in these full skins. But ours is a subtle strength Potent with centuries of yearning, Of being kegged and shut away In dark forgotten places. We shall endure To steal your senses In that lonely twilight Of your winter’s grief.”
— Pauli Murray
#26 —
“I loved my friend He went away from me There’s nothing more to say The poem ends, Soft as it began- I loved my friend.”
I sometimes hold it half a sin To put in words the grief I feel; For words, like Nature, half reveal And half conceal the Soul within. But, for the unquiet heart and brain, A use in measured language lies; The sad mechanic exercise, Like dull narcotics, numbing pain. In words, like weeds, I’ll wrap me o’er, Like coarsest clothes against the cold: But that large grief which these enfold Is given in outline and no more.
— Alfred Lord Tennyson
Now that you’ve looked through all 27 friendship poems, which ones stood out for you? And will you share one of them today or use it as inspiration for a poem of your own?
