Wisdom

Today’s we’d like to challenge you to write a poem rooted in “weird wisdom,” by which we mean something objectively odd that someone told you once, and that has stuck with you ever since.

In response to this prompt, I would have liked to think of some clever and witty piece of wisdom that someone once told me, however instead I’ve gone with an ‘honest’ response.

Someone once told me (and this was something that a boy had said to her) that you should never turn away someone who is looking for friendship. It is a fairly mundane statement, but it always stayed with me.

For some reason, I took it as some sort of ‘gospel’, and tried to adhere to it. But, it made less and less sense to me as I got older. After all, there are lots of people who are looking to be friends for the wrong reasons, and should you really entertain that? Especially in this case, the woman was very beautiful, and there is a chance the guy said that to her because she was rejecting his advances and he resented that. But, it stayed with her for some reason, and then also stayed with me.

I think the important thing about it was that it was especially true for those cases where someone is offering ‘friendship’, and perhaps it’s not someone you might actually want to be friends with. In these cases, what the sentiment teaches you is patience, and to recognise that, whatever people’s motives are, at the end of the day we are all just looking for some kind of connection, and there is a dignity in just being patient and (at the very least) hearing the other person out.

You've got a friend

When they sit next to you at lunch 
Pretending to be interested in your day
But proceed to tell you about every episode 
of some version of Star Trek 

Or they ask to go hiking
And criticise you for going too slow 
And then ask to go hiking again 
The next weekend

When your other friends scorn 
And laugh at them behind their back 
Think less of you for inviting them along 

And when they get in the way 
Can't take a hint 
Seven missed calls 
Movie this Friday??

Hear them out.

After all, you were that person one time 
It's just that you told yourself early on
That some people are better off alone 
That's a lesson you should keep to yourself.

Maybe they can teach something new
How everyone needs a friend sometimes
Even you.