Last Summer (2018), Emrys posed a question to the returning staff and the former campers turned staff members during staff training.
He asked, “What brings you back to Sonlight?”
Joe Casey, a new boy’s counselor and former camper, was not sure how to answer this question. The problem was not knowing what the answer was, but rather how He could describe it in words. As everyone else answered, Joe asked if He could think about it. He would get back to Emrys soon. So the months passed and the days grew shorter. And as the Summer was drawing to an end, Joe thoughtfully and carefully crafted his answer into this beautiful poem.
Enjoy.
What brings me back
Is the fabric of Grace
In which this place is steeped
From which, like the sun
And Moon
And Stars,
To rise
Is to shine.
From it, the Aspen groves, oak,
And ponderosa Pine
Chime and Sing,
Sparkle, gold and green.
It’s the space between note
of Song,
The watching centuries of timbre
Shade,
And that which holds the Stars
in place.
Here we find a mute gospel,
God’s playground,
Where wildflowers take shape
And the rose of the mind grows
What brings me back
Is the fabric of Grace
Which find the heart young,
And always keeps it so.