“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”
That was the closing line of a poem written by Linfield students, faculty, staff, community members and even visiting fans at athletic events. Each person was tasked with crafting a single line that would then be arranged into a masterpiece. The gathering process was held in the fall semester of 2024 and included both hand written and typed lines.
The group compiling this epic was Camas, the makers of Linfield University’s annual literary journal. Camas accepts a variety of creative media, including art, short stories, poems and more.
The spearheaders of this effort were Colin Bellaris and Emma Bare, who both led the event unveiling the poem to the public on March 20.
“The idea to put together this Campus Poem was thrown out as more or less a joke during one of our meetings as something we could do to draw attention to Camas,” Bare said.
In total, over a hundred submissions were received, varying in tone from serious reflections about one’s time in college to “Hippity hoppity, I’m in poverty.”
“Some submissions we needed to chop up,” Bellaris said. “We still used all of them, but we put each piece into different parts.”
The length of the submissions, like the tone, varied. Some were single lines or phrases, while others submitted entire stanzas that needed to be split to keep the feeling that many people wrote each part of the poem.
“I loved seeing all of the eclectic and honest submissions to this project,” Bellaris said. “When it was all put together, and even a bit before, it really did carry this aura of ‘tons of people wrote this.’ ”
As a result, the poem takes you on a rollercoaster, at times reflecting on the world we live in, but at others complaining about being pulled over in Amity. Some lines reference the beloved bunnies on campus, while another quotes Kelly Clarkson.
“It really captures the spirit of a multifaceted campus with tons of different emotions and perspectives,” Bellaris said.
This process took the work of a team of several people, and it was fun for all involved.
“Those of us who constructed it, including Faythe Lloyd, Hope Bazzi, Sydney Monroe, and Kara Kanetake, had fun giggling over certain lines or debating which color tape to use or arguing about which Sour Patch Kid color was the sourest,” Bare said.
In total, it took the team over nine hours to assemble and complete the poem. It contains thirty-seven stanzas and hundreds of lines.
At the beginning of the process, there were seven pages of poetry that needed to be assembled, a process Bare said was at first overwhelming.
The process of assembling the poem took a lot of thought and discussion. The team discussed the implications of moving lines around, tying them with others, and took time on every decision they made. The result was a poem both Bellaris and Bare were proud of.
“It was incredible getting to watch this idea transform from a pile of scraps of paper to a meticulously put-together masterpiece that contains so many voices across campus,” Bare said. “And it was also just plain fun to work with a team of brilliant people to make something like this.”
The event consisted of ten people, each taking turns reading stanzas of the poem. The poem itself took over twenty minutes to read. The poem was titled “When Life Gives You Lemonade”.
The poem was a success, and Bellaris hopes it becomes a Linfield tradition. Bare sees it as proof that any idea can be pulled off.
“This project is proof that no matter how crazy or ambitious an idea seems at first glance,” Bare said. “You really can pull off the unthinkable if you want to make it happen.”
At the end of the poem’s reveal, both Bellaris and Bare showed appreciation to everyone who made it possible.
“Thank you to everyone in Camas for everything you’ve done to make this happen,” Bellaris said.
