To Like

I like what

You like, and

He likes it too, what

We like, because

You like it. People.

They like

To like the same things.

I set myself the challenge above when I was 17: write a poem based on a conjugation (even then I found it hard to abandon logic and simply embrace freestyle arts).

It comes to mind again now not as an exercise, but a simple truth in relation to true friendships. I've come to realise that "true" is unbelievably easy to discern: it's the people who talk to me with excitement, but with a glisten in their eyes. And the reason's simple: it's because we recognise we're kindred spirits. For all the attraction that "different" people hold while one is growing up (and I've pedestalled a few), "true" friends are people who have a bond that's been formed through mutual appreciation of the similar.

With some it's new experiences embarked upon together (a recent skiing holiday solidified a gorgeous friendship); with others it's a baring of the soul that brings a very special closeness (I've watched this happen to my husband in particular over the past couple of years). Or for a third set, it's simply an undeniable mutual respect: a shared humour, a common niche, or more often just an inexplicable realisation that you're the same kind of people.

And that's the key: the same. Old friends can be best friends - but so too can new ones. A dear friend once said to me that sometimes we have to see old friends less often simply to make room for new ones - and I knew instantly what she meant.

But then, when we talk, our eyes glisten.