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Blue and Gold
Michigan, Michigan: Kings to go forth,
Kerothen, Kerothen, songs to the North,
Ice scattered pond with a trout flipping high,
Geist of beau monde, with a shout to the sky.
Out from the frozen of winter and wrought,
Stout from the chosen, and rendered and sought,
Fathers and Brethren, the future to wrest,
Michigan, Kerothen: route to the West.
Kerothen: Greek for “from the heart” / Geist of beau monde: French for “good society”
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What When Where Who
What dusk of night, what dawn of day,
What time of flight, what rhyme and ray
What sky vermilion, cobalt bay,
What tried, one billion words to say?
“When time be strong, and life robust,
When clime be balm and scarce be fuss,
When mile be sound, and trial be plus,
And isle be crowned, and gold be dust,
Where land and sea meet strand and scree,
Where San Francisco, oversea
Where China and Japan they be,
Where Berkeley clan of strong esprit,
What ocean tossed, what storm abroad,
When prime was lost alarmed we trod?
Then chimed a bell with cheer well – shod:
Where times be well, then steer with God.”
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Of Man and Creed
And what of Man, amid the glade,
Below the Sun, amid the shade?
What of that one which God hath made,
Of gold, of light, and accolade?
O Man and Creed, thou never trade
That weight and glory, undismayed,
No greater story be conveyed:
No man forlorn, who on Thee stayed.
I sought above, to govern me,
Wrought of love: my Sovereign free.
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Alec Ream is a writer living in Virginia. His poetic work and creative fiction have been widely published. A member of the Demosthenian Literary Society at UGA, he wrote on Lookout Mountain, and continued to write, lecture and work for Delta Kappa Epsilon HQ. He was first published reading to the pledge class of Michigan DKE, in Ann Arbor in 2008. Recently, his poem Green Fire was read at the Washington Literary Society & Debating Union at UVA.
Featured Image: “Winter in Michigan” by Vicky Plath.