I did not expect much from the group when I first showed up there,
A collection of people assembled around a shared affair,
I came with a modest expectation and a plan to leave early,
A ninety-minute commitment and no attachment, purely.
That was three years ago and I have not missed many sessions,
A fact that would have surprised the me with the low expectations,
Who showed up with his jacket on and his exit mapped in full
And found the people in the room impossible to pull.
The group that made a difference, I didn’t see it coming at all,
I walked in with a ninety-minute plan and hit a wall
Of something that I needed and had not known to seek,
The group that made a difference runs on every week.
There is a specific chemistry that groups occasionally build,
A sum-of-parts that goes beyond the individuals filled,
Where the conversation operates at a level that outpaces
Any individual’s capacity in separate places.
I have been in groups before that were correctly constituted
But never quite ignited and eventually were dissolved,
And I have been in this one which for reasons I cannot diagram
Became the kind of group that changes where you are.
I have said things in this group I have not said in other rooms,
Not because it is a confessional but because the room assumes
A basic level of good faith and a patience with the real,
Which makes the real available in ways that you can feel.
I don’t know how long it will hold in this specific arrangement,
Groups evolve and shift and sometimes require rearrangement,
But right now it is one of the more important things in my week,
The group that made a difference and continues to speak.