2019 venture vermont: Write a poem or song about your favorite outdoor space and send it to us

unless you just walked in in the last ten minutes, my favorite outdoor spaces these days are the girl scout camps of the Girl Scouts of the Green and White mountains.

i felt there was a need for one song that spoke of the bond between the camps, because we're all one council, all one movement, and i wanted to frame the camps as friends.

so i wrote this song.

here's a quick and dirty recording of it.

Four Friends

                                    

There were four friends as solid as rocks

A dragon and a turtle and an owl and a fox (1)

Like fingers in gloves or keys in locks, 

They all went out to roam together  

And they all went out to roam.

They danced in a meadow high on a hill

In the green Green Mountains while the summer stood still

But the seasons turned as the seasons will (2)

And they all went out to roam together

And they all went out to roam.

They paddled on a lake both sparkling and sweet

And they went to Seven Gables by their wings and by their feet (3)

But the travel of the friends was not complete 

So they all went out to roam together

And they all went out to roam

They went exploring down by the shore

And they took a trail so far that they could see a dinosaur (4)

All thanks to the Daughter of Appledore (5)

They all went out to roam together

And they all went out to roam.

In Sebbins Pond they swam all around

And Sandy is the other pond and sandy is the ground

An american chestnut tree they found (6)

but they all went  out to roam together 
And they all went out to roam.

But a piece was missing from the fox's heart
She wanted to return to the place she got her start
So to Twin Hills turned and they traveled apart (7)

And she said i love to roam together but i love to be back home.

You know i love to roam together
but Twin Hills is my home.

(1) these are references to the four mascots of the camps: the twin hills fox, the farnsworth owl, the kettleford dragon, and the seawood turtle
(2)this sounds like the least specific of the verses, but it is really a reflection of being in my mid-fifties playing in the same meadow where i played as a child.
(3) seven gables is a place at camp farnsworth
(4) at camp seawood they have a rock called dinosaur rock. it is pretty far out from main camp.
(5) this is an obscure reference. celia thaxter was a prominent 19th century poet and her family donated the land for this camp to the girl scouts. ms. thaxter lived on star island for much of her adult life, but her father was the lighthouse keeper of appledore island and she spent some of her childhood there. it's not the best lyric, but it acknowledges the gift and if fits the rhyme scheme.
(6) camp kettleford borders two ponds, sebbins pond and sandy pond. they have actual american chestnut trees there, which gives me hope for the future. and yes, the soil is very sandy.
(7) the lyrics to this verse and the coda change according to where the song is being sung.