Marwood is...

2022 Poetry Class Group Poem

Marwood Is:

Not a place, it’s a people.

We have been to so many campsites over the years.

We have even been online which was as messed up as it needed to be.

We have been to many campfires that whoever wants to share is comfortable to.

Marwood is not a place but a people.

Marwood Is:

Friendships

Like being there for eachother

Hugs that wrap you in a warm quilt.

Words that rid you of all your guilt

Feelings of forgiving and giving people

From all over, here for you.

Marwood Is:

Me, you, us, them, together.

Smoke and sparks in the air, 

Sage burning kindly.

Arms wrapped around each other, giggling.

Stars and late night snacks.

The smell of well water, the taste of long awaited toothpaste, and a desperately needed shower.

Your heart beating so fast, if it's from your crush, a best friend.  If it’s from the sweat of you running to hug your other half.

We are Marwood. Our hearts.  Our souls. Combined.

We are Marwood.

Marwood Is:

A circle of bursting hormones

Breaking into harmony, holding the note of untrained voices,

The rhythm passing from hand to hand around the circle, 

A current that even the youth that don’t know the lyrics

Can taste vibrating on their tongues.

Marwood Is:

The warm fluttery feeling

Like the sparks of campfire

Are popping in your heart

Strings are being pulled, and water is flowing

How could this stop?

Why are the sparks so momentary?

Why are they so strong?

The imprint of arms around you

I still feel it

Who is this?

Its Marwood

staying , sticking, festering

The imprint is hard and brave

No matter how much you feel

It never goes

I need to hug back

But there are so many sparks

Its impossible

Marwood Is:

Its light traveling to each of our candles

Candle to candle

We smell the smoke that comes

From each other’s cores

Listening to the crackles

Of our hardships

Caring for our counterparts

And friends to continue

All our flames burning brighter

Marwood Is:

Hearing people speak about their experience without ever opening their mouths

It is finding comfort in others touch like sleeping after crying

It is group hugs that make the sweat stick to your body like a magnet to a fridge.

It is screaming lyrics at top of your lungs just enough to make you not lightheaded

Marwood is where I find peace in myself

Marwood Is:

A FAMILY

We cry together,

We love together,

We STICK together

It’s the hugs

The salty tears

And the love that squeezes you so tight you can barely breathe

Marwood picked us upland glued us together

It gave us the give of friends that will be FOREVER

Marwood Is:

Always changing

With every breath

We take, it becomes

Ever so slightly different.

With every word we way

The energy of the camp becomes more powerful.

With every step we make, we can

Feel the heartbeat beneath the ground