Relax, my friend

The following is a poem written by Barbara Page and sent to me in summer 2008, while I was recovering from the end of a career, a breakup and the onset of going back to school full time:

To a Fallen Member

Laid low by a vagabond lover
you vow to rise and, yes, recover
this gauzy sweet and silken summer
but no
you're here in a tangle of repose
where glances glance off (or you suppose)
and what you'd hope would come only goes
and so
you chide yourself but you're mistaken
what sleeps one season will awaken
sure _ firm _ o! friend _ be stirred not shaken

-- Barbara Kerr Page, 2008