Isaac Bashevis Singer (Was Once a Friend of Mine)

And all the world seemed a faithless tale told by a friend of mine,

Written in the plots of tragedy upon these facts unkind,

When Isaac Bashevis Singer became a friend of mine,

I reached across the world I knew and touched beauty then so fine,

and

I knew her love was never false or made in flattering lies,

But still true and so sublime,

And Isaac Bashevis Singer had run out of tales to write,

And Isaac Bashevis Singer was still a friend of mine,

I sat upon one evening gazing through eyes at these broken lines,

And flying snails and children’s tales

And things that made us cry,

Yet, Isaac Bashevis Singer seemed so sad and ever wise,

But Issac Bashevis Singer was still a friend of mine,

Perhaps he was once happier when writing of old times,

Before Isaac Bashevis Singer became a friend of mine,

There are the times upon this World that we look within its lies,

When people seem to be far away,

Not nobly aiming high,

Their faces, hearts, and souls and lives

Seem never truly blessed,

And when we think we stand upright,

We soon do go adrift,

But world soon Ends before we know,

And sorrow’s the most that we find,

Once the lives we knew were sweeter still,

And the World was young and kind,

And Isaac Bashevis Singer was once a friend of mine,

And Isaac Bashevis Singer could write the World aside,

Yes, Isaac Bashevis Singer was once a friend of mine.

-Albert Turner Goins