University of Alabama Poem (College Poetry)

Posted on June 12, 2026 by clydeaidoo — Leave a comment

*Alabama Crimson Tide*

Two Words. There are two words that tremor the state of Alabama and the cores from which they leap every time they are uttered. Two words that summarize everything that every member of this university is feeling. It’s heard every day. Everywhere. It’s heard in all the dorm rooms, the classrooms, and everywhere on campus and throughout Tuscaloosa. They travel across Alabama, through the four winding rivers, up every creek and trail, and just as sure as a hummingbird chirps in the spring, freshmen can’t wait for the fall. Where they can join the movement that has been carried through the fields and into the hearts of grandparents, fathers, mothers, and kinfolk all through the state of color and cliffs and finally know the words fully by heart. They’ve heard the words on the TV set and if you live in ‘Bama, chances are, you’ve said them more times than you can count. It’s said whenever Alabamans feel that little something nudge inside them. Sometimes it’s spoken calmly…other times it’s belted loud. No matter the inflection: it’s always said proud. It’s said by great leaders like Paul Bryant and Nick Sabin. Legends like Bart Starr, Joe Namath, Don Hutson. It’s said when you’re in the middle of a celebration party after one of our 15, damn straight, 15 National Championships. It’s said when folks are smack dab in the middle of the fun on The Strip and is repeated over and over somewhere in the stands of Bryant-Denny Stadium. If you’re a native of Alabama, you know these words because you’ve felt them down to your bones ever since you were still in the womb. And though every region knows the Tide coming is for them, we ain’t ever leaving Sweet Home Alabama. This is where we belong and where we’re always meant to be. This is Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Where life couldn’t be any better. And how sweet it feels to express this in these two special words; especially for the very first time:

I’m Home.

**

(Set to the Melody of “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd)

(Guitar Intro)

Turn it up…

….

Warm reels keep on turnin’…
Pull for Crimson; Team, bring it in…
What a catch for Alabama…
Take it home, and then do it again,
Now that’s another win…
Yes.

Well, their Aubie talked about us…
Well, we had to put him down…
When her owners came to teach us…
They learned a lesson ’bout how to fight—showed ’em how.

Roll Tide, Alabama…
White & Crimson rush on through…
Roll Tide, Alabama…
Tide, our city runs through you.

(12-second guitar solo)

In Auburnland they love the Tigers (boo, boo, boo),
They failed but did all they could do…
The Iron Bowl record does not: boootther us…
Tigers, does it bother you?
Tell the truth.

Roll Tide, Alabama…
Here the Red burns Auburn Blue…
Roll Tide, Alabama…
Tide, our city runs through you.
Here they come,
Roll, Alabama

(12-second Guitar Solo)

Now, the Capstone feels the Tide rise,
And yeah, we’re known to sing a tune or two,
Rama Jama; Yea Alabama,
This gives us fuel to scorch the Blue
And that’s what we do.

Roll Tide, Alabama
(Oh, Roll Tide)
Here the Red burns Auburn Blue,
(Now ain’t that true…)
Roll Tide, Alabama
Tide, our city runs through you.

Roll Tide, Alabama
White & Crimson rush on through,
Roll Tide, Alabama
Tide, our city runs through you.

Any questions—Roll Tide’s the answer.

From Alma Mater Vol. 4: The South
You can read the full four-volume Alma Mater collection here.
©2017. Original Clyde Aidoo. All rights reserved

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St. Martin’s University Poem (College Poetry)

Posted on June 11, 2026 by clydeaidoo — Leave a comment

*St. Martin’s University*

Patrons give in the honor of something immense,
A faith or a love; both something intense,
Before Saints are carried off into the past tense:

If it’s the heart where it all must end,
Then it’s the heart where we all must start.

Kings of Hearts are crowned by what’s said,
How they walked, then Kings are led
To Queens’ dizzy love—off with their heads,

Because if the heart is where it must end,
Then it’s a heart where we must begin.

They swoon at the Gala, tied to the nines,
They go to be romanced—in Wine & Dines,
A heart that is beating is a face that shines

For if the heart is where it must end,
Then it’s the heart where all we must start.

St. Martin of Tours believed in the cures
For a weakened heart—that’s poor & endures
The pain inside but the gain of love lures

If it’s the heart where it all must end,
Then it’s the heart where all we must start.

Saints study Christ and Think with the Heart,
One that chooses love is sorted as smart,
Love has brought us here so it’s how we’ll depart,

If it’s the heart where this all must end,
Then mending a heart is where we shall begin.

From Alma Mater Vol. 3: The West
You can read the full four-volume Alma Mater collection here.
©2016. Original Clyde Aidoo. All rights reserved

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Westminster College Poem (College Poetry)

Posted on June 10, 2026 by clydeaidoo — Leave a comment

*Westminster College*

They held hands at the top of the mountain, with the snow tucked beneath their feet.
Before he let go, he looked at her with a smile, and said,
“I’ll see you down there.”
Then they raced, not unlike their hearts.
Those words were shared between the couple for a lifetime,
the last time
Was three years ago, when once again, they braced to let go.
As he prepared to leave for Westminster, and she had to go away to Alton for a year,
He kissed her hand one last time, and told her,
“Don’t worry. I’ll see you down there.”
And he did, when she, too, enrolled and began attending the school…but it isn’t until
Kiss the Griffin night,
That she officially became a Griffin.
After graduation, they went on to wed and start a family.
One day, as they both unwound from a day’s work, they shared a night of ease and leisure like the ones they shared in Stock Hall. He told her he would go join the kids and begin prepping dinner. She then told him before he took off,
“OK, I’ll see you down there.”
He paused and glanced at her before taking down the stairs,

And they laughed happily ever after.

From Alma Mater Vol. 3: The West
You can read the full four-volume Alma Mater collection here.
©2016. Original Clyde Aidoo. All rights reserved

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Utah State University Poem (College Poetry)

Posted on June 9, 2026 by clydeaidoo — Leave a comment

*Utah State University*

New to USU & you wanna be True Blue?
Listen to this, Seal it with a Kiss.
Think the Aggie lifestyle is truly meant for you?
Listen to this, Seal it with a Kiss.
Like a shot aimed directly for the backboard,
Aggies cannot miss, Seal it with a Kiss.
If you want to seal your fate and jump on aboard,
Then listen to this, Seal it with a Kiss.

You’re not True Blue till you’ve had the ice cream,
Try the Bull Tracks, and you’ll come right back.
You ain’t really Blue till you join the HURD to scream,
At games in the Spectrum where Aggies refract.

Homecoming is a fine time to be an Aggie,
And it is where many of the new become Aggies,
Some choose to take the other traveled route of Block A,
And become a True Aggie with true lover’s OK.
A kiss is what it takes, then the Blue is yours to take,
Yes, kissing does indeed: A fine Aggie make.

New to USU & you wanna be True Blue?
Listen to this, Seal it with a Kiss.
Think the Aggie lifestyle is truly meant for you?
Listen to this, Seal it with a Kiss.
Like a rebound grabbed that you took into your mitts,
Grab on to his miss, Seal love with a Kiss.
And if you want to seal the deal and feel the love fits,
Girls, grab on to his lips, Seal it with a Kiss.

The HURD is stomping, the HURD is loud,
The HURD is the Utah State screaming home crowd!
Our team is the Aggies who won four straight
Conference championships back from ’08.
Basketball in Utah ushers in a lot of noise,
A sport many Aggies have played since they were boys,
A sport where Aggies never say, “I’m Alone.”
But when their friends took Stockton, they did say, “I’m Malone.”
If you believe in the Aggies then you’re already in,
And together
I-I-I-I
I Believe That We Will Win!
I Believe That We Will Win!
I Believe That We Will Win!
I Believe That We Will Win!
I Believe That We Will Win!
I Believe That We Will Win!

From Alma Mater Vol. 3: The West
You can read the full four-volume Alma Mater collection here.
©2016. Original Clyde Aidoo. All rights reserved

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Posted in Alma Mater, Art, Poetry

New Mexico Tech Poem (College Poetry)

Posted on January 31, 2026 by clydeaidoo — Leave a comment

*New Mexico Tech*

This conception will only become what you make it.
Here’s how demolitionists who’ve landed here make it:

With a mixture of
Excellence in
Teaching and Research,
Classrooms decoding the science of lightning in the lab,
And encasing it in volatile minds
that go off
to the 40-square-mile testing range,
and prepare to blast through the sky
like the 2.4 meter telescope held by the span of brainpowers
that say with the right telescope, we will be able to see if life exists up there.
Well, we say you already can. Up there in those clouds are the shards and fragments
of what has detonated from the ideas of Socorro, down below,
And as these pieces lay harmless and used,
They prove that something living can cause something so very explosive,

now what better sign of life
is there than that?

From Alma Mater Vol. 3: The West
You can read the full four-volume Alma Mater collection here.
©2016. Original Clyde Aidoo. All rights reserved

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The University of Montana Poem

Posted on January 23, 2025 by clydeaidoo — Leave a comment

*The University of Montana*

As we depart from this backdrop of gardens,
Where Grizzlies respire into nature’s pardons,
Away from her air, the tempered heart hardens,
Leaving to the darkness, now we grieve.
We’ll reawaken to the smell of the evergreens,
The most beautiful scene—man has ever seen,
The preference of outdoors we will forever lean,
The dark room, called home, is just a reprieve.
We’ll dream of the Oval, the rivers, M Trail,
Then rise to fly behind nature’s tail,
Reawakened to again relive at morn,
Discovery continues with Grizzlies reborn.

From Alma Mater Vol. 3: The West
You can read the full four-volume Alma Mater collection here.
©2016. Original Clyde Aidoo. All rights reserved

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Montana State University Poem

Posted on January 3, 2025 by clydeaidoo — Leave a comment

*Montana State University*

When skiers crossover to rejoin family,
When the climbers have made it past the Big Sky,
A new life is on the other side,
But this is forever the Last Best Place.

When cyclists and all the horseback riders,
Ride off into Montana’s sunsets,
The happy ending is far more bittersweet,
None of the living wants to leave this place.

Catapalooza gives strays a new family,
And a home in the mountains, a bed in the sky,
Trails and open spaces always by their side,
In the race with equine, here comes in first place.

The gates to the next life awaits these riders,
For every sun arising, another sun sets,
A new beginning in the real world—leaves them bittersweet,
But the Spirit of the Bobcat still stands in their place.

From Alma Mater Vol. 3: The West
You can read the full four-volume Alma Mater collection here.
©2016. Original Clyde Aidoo. All rights reserved

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Idaho State University Poem

Posted on December 20, 2024 by clydeaidoo — Leave a comment

*Idaho State University*

If you listen closely enough, you can hear
Idaho’s state motto
Everywhere. Everyday.
Today, one of those places is inside an advisor’s office on Terry Street.
If you watch closely enough, you can see
Why this is the smile capital of the United States.
She smiled at the junior who entered her office,
Then She Listened.

The Bengal wanted to change majors and begin a new program in Biology.
The advisor then perused the Bengal’s file for a while,
And the only remaining task was to determine how long it
would take to graduate,
And as the third-year Bengal hung in limbo, she could only think of
Her experiences as a staff member of the Outdoor Adventure Center:

Camping at Big Springs Campground
With the astounding mountains in the background.

Competing in the Pocatello Pump,
Rock-climbing above the sum of contenders in lump.

Fishing in Pocatello Creek, Skiing up Pebble Creek…
And with that,
They began to speak…

She asked the counselor if she knew how long it’d all take,
How long until she finishes this mapped-out endeavor,
Inside her head, the wishful Bengal said,

Please, Let It Be Forever.

From Alma Mater Vol. 3: The West
You can read the full four-volume Alma Mater collection here.
©2016. Original Clyde Aidoo. All rights reserved

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The University of Idaho Poem

Posted on December 20, 2024 by clydeaidoo — Leave a comment

*The University of Idaho*

Every significant moment in history that is covered
By the historians and the professors, is not only discussed
For what took place, but how they got there.
The common question from the inquisitive mind is simply,
What Led to It?

This very day in present time, there are students who
Have arrived to make their own history.
To mark their time on this earth and leave behind something of value for those who trail behind.
What led them to this?

What drove them to take Route 12, into the rapids and snow-covered mountains?
What led them to run through the rivers that led them right into the Hello Walk?

What led these students to trek this rugged terrain into a gem with the Memorial Gym
That is as architecturally admired as the Tudor-Gothic Administration Building, complete with its 80-Foot clock tower?

It may in part have been the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, or the friendly Idahoans
Who invited them in.
But there is one thing for certain…

Each one of these Vandals was driven to enter this land
With intentions of seizing the Silver and Gold,
Then to walk on, at large, as free men.

And when the Vandals run off
&
Leave their marks,

It is this University that led them to it.

From Alma Mater Vol. 3: The West
You can read the full four-volume Alma Mater collection here.
©2016. Original Clyde Aidoo. All rights reserved

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University of Hawai’i Poem

Posted on December 19, 2024 by clydeaidoo — Leave a comment

*University of Hawai‘i*

There is a warm reception in the Hawaiian tropics.
A spoken word of poetry that flows in these Islands
to visitors, and
Sons & Daughters off to their studies.
A tender wind that breathes life to this destination,
Like the romantic sunsets & beaches carried by torches.
Under this sun, this moon, these stars,
The most-living have found heaven.

Canoe paddling in the ocean beneath the bluest skies man has ever seen,
Surfing in a setting that revives the self each ride,
And simply appreciating the fortune of drowning in beauty:

A treasure Hawaiians want to take to their deaths,
And share it with the world:
A fondness by request.

In this land where the Sugarcane sprouts,
And beautiful transcends to the spiritual,
There is an elevation topped with waterfalls,
That moves active souls to the world’s tallest mountain.

There is beauty all over the Pacific,
But in Hawai‘i, there lies the summit.
And when those sons and daughters leave for class,
They are off to reach their own.
In these islands of hulas, hibiscus, and heights,
Buried in the trenches are the
Rainbow Warriors who uphold utopia.
By continuing a tradition of Hawai‘i not spoken of as much by the visitors:
Wisdom from experience and acquired with knowledge.

Out-of-state students and life-long locals who will attend
The University of Hawai‘i,
During this four-year visit:
Be sure to bring your gifts.
And be prepared for the warmest of welcomes:
Every single day.

Hawai‘i is known for its beauty, beaches, volcanoes and summits,
but
Above All Is Humanity.
And this message is delivered in the hello to the incoming freshman.
In the goodbye of the graduating Warrior.
Sent off to the world and defined by Love:

Aloha from Hawai‘i.

From Alma Mater Vol. 3: The West
You can read the full four-volume Alma Mater collection here.
©2016. Original Clyde Aidoo. All rights reserved

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