10 Poems About Friendship!

Whether you’re celebrating friendship that’s stood the test of time, remembering a pen pal in your time of need or eulogizing a friend whose demise has left a hole in your life that’s yet to be filled by another, this blog post contains poems on friendship for every occasion.

1. Having a Coke with you by Frank O’Hara

Since this is quite a lengthy poem, here are a few excerpts from it. It has often been interpreted as a ballad by many, but it also works as an ode to a platonic friendship:

Having a Coke with you is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne

or being sick to my stomach on the Travessera de Gracia in Barcelona

partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian

partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt

partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches

partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary

it is hard to believe when I’m with you that there can be anything as still

as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it

in the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and forth

between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles

Coca Cola image

2. A Love Letter to my Best Friend by Andrew Warner

TW: This poem contains themes of mental illness as it is written for a dear friend suffering from bipolar disorder. Here is an excerpt from this moving poem and a link to listen to a reading of the same from its author: https://youtu.be/S5GFnNSYmkA

Bipolar disorder is less like a coin,

 it’s less like two-face, 

It’s more like the middle of a traffic light at two a.m. 

It is less stop and go, more like slow. 

Like sometimes.

Best Friends image

3. Tug O’ War by Shel Silverstein

If you have a silly friend, share this silly poem with them!

I will not play at tug o’ war.

I’d rather play at hug o’ war,

Where everyone hugs

Instead of tugs,

Where everyone giggles

And rolls on the rug,

Where everyone kisses,

And everyone grins,

And everyone cuddles,

And everyone wins.

Children Playing Tug of War image

4. Us Two by A.A. Milne

This is a poem for the inner child in you. You are lucky if you have as strong a friendship as Winnie the Pooh and his pals.

Wherever I am, there’s always Pooh,

There’s always Pooh and Me.

Whatever I do, he wants to do,

“Where are you going today?” says Pooh:

“Well, that’s very odd ‘cos I was too.

Let’s go together,” says Pooh, says he.

“Let’s go together,” says Pooh.

“What’s twice eleven?” I said to Pooh.

(“Twice what?” said Pooh to Me.)

“I think it ought to be twenty-two.”

“Just what I think myself,” said Pooh.

“It wasn’t an easy sum to do,

But that’s what it is,” said Pooh, said he.

“That’s what it is,” said Pooh.

“Let’s look for dragons,” I said to Pooh.

“Yes, let’s,” said Pooh to Me.

We crossed the river and found a few-

“Yes, those are dragons all right,” said Pooh.

“As soon as I saw their beaks I knew.

That’s what they are,” said Pooh, said he.

“That’s what they are,” said Pooh.

Pooh and Christopher Robin image

5. Alone by Maya Angelou

Don’t be fooled by the title. This isn’t a poem about loneliness, but rather on the importance of a friend in one’s life. Be it a millionaire, a rockstar, or even a homeless person out on the streets, nobody can last long without a friend:

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.

Alone, all alone

Nobody, but nobody

Can make it out here alone.

There are some millionaires

With money they can’t use

Their wives run round like banshees

Their children sing the blues

They’ve got expensive doctors

To cure their hearts of stone.

But nobody

No, nobody

Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone

Nobody, but nobody

Can make it out here alone.

Man Alone image
Man with Friend image

6. My First Best Friend by Jack Prelutsky

If you have a friend who is quite the prankster and has left you embarrassed in public on many an occasion, but you still can’t imagine life without him/her/them, then this is the perfect poem for you:

My first best friend is Awful Ann—

she socked me in the eye.

My second best is Sneaky Sam—

he tried to swipe my pie.

My third best friend is Max the Rat—

he trampled on my toes.

My fourth best friend is Nasty Nell—

She almost broke my nose.

My fifth best friend is Ted the Toad—

he kicked me in the knee.

My sixth best friend is Grumpy Gail—

she’s always mean to me.

My seventh best is Monster Moe—

he often plays too rough.

That’s all the friends I’ve got right now—

I think I’ve got enough.

Prankster image

7. What is the Greatest Gift? By Mary Oliver

An excerpt from a poem that highlights how friendship is the greatest gift anybody can ask for:

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.

That you have a life — courteous, intelligent —

that I wonder about more than I wonder about my own.

That you have a soul — your own, no one else’s —

that I wonder about more than I wonder about my own.

So that I find my soul clapping its hands for yours

more than my own.

Friends Holding Hands image

8. My Friends by Ali Power

This poem encapsulates the power of friendship and friends and their ability to bring warmth, joy, happiness and companionship into one’s life:

my friends

create the mood

by describing it

turning off all the lights

a place in our minds

wakes as in water

we dance alone and with each other

we make circles around each other

get close then step back

then get close again

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

Cute Friends image

9. On the Friendship Betwixt Two Ladies by Edmund Waller

Excerpts from a witty poem detailing the companionship between two women. A friendship that no man can tear apart!

Tell me, lovely, loving pair!

Why so kind, and so severe?

Why so careless of our care,

Only to yourselves so dear?

By this cunning change of hearts,

You the power of love control;

While the boy’s eluded darts

Can arrive at neither soul.

Not the silver doves that fly,

Yoked in Cytherea’s car;

Not the wings that lift so high,

And convey her son so far;

Are so lovely, sweet, and fair,

Or do more ennoble love;

Are so choicely matched a pair,

Or with more consent do move.

Girl Best Friends image

10. On Friendship by Khalil Ghibran

This list of poetry wouldn’t be complete without some Ghibran! Quite a lengthy poem, but a great read that amplifies the need for friends in a person’s life:

And a youth said, Speak to us of Friendship.

    And he answered, saying:

    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 us 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 it’s 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.

Best Friends image black and white
Cute Young Friends image black and white

The beauty of poems about friendship is that they provide an incredible, unique way to express complex emotions which are hard to explain through regular prose. They remind us to cherish the friendships we are blessed with and relish moments that bring us closer together. These masterpieces allow for an emotional adventure, inspiring us to reminisce on the power of friendship and its impacts on our own lives. Ultimately, these poems about friendship leave us with a greater appreciation for life’s sweetest moments.

Don’t forget to share these beautiful poems with a friend or two! Thanks for reading!

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