Arlene Corwin writes

How To Tackle Loneliness 

Tackle: such a funny word,

A lovely word, an active word.

Loneliness: a sad, inactive, ‘only’ word

Which smells of isolation, 

Friendlessness, abandonment, rejection.

Unalloyed projection

Of a mind not seeing rightly.

All it needs is rectifying;

Taking thoughts from out the air

Or in the head where thoughts are spread.

Rejecting systematically the whirling round,

And casting out their ugly sound;

Lifting hand or leg or ‘bum’

To something new albeit ‘dumb’. 

It does not matter what you do.

It’s just to shift the thought somehow;

Shake the body, use the eye, eyebrow;

Limbs too are there to help you stay

New focussed, endlessly creative.

You’re not alone when you’re alone.

Make your thoughts a telephone.

Ideas are constant.

Change the coin

With which to launch the motivation -

And the whole becomes a boon

To get your ‘happy’ hormones working.

Happiness is always lurking - 

There to make you comfortable.

Loneliness, the thief of solace,

A grief giver, full of malice

Leaves when you create in mind,

Find and form and shape some kind

Of Anything.

Use your senses - all of them:

Eyes, nose, ears, tongue, touch: each limb.

You’ve got a toolbox built within.

You have and are your best companion.

There!  A sound and practical solution

Lies at hand.