Stanford University Tribute

From Alma Mater Vol. 3: The West
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*Stanford University*

The Stanford wind has blown in varied leaves from all 50 states joining in a Powwow
of free spirits who have flown in domestically and internationally to sing in Gaieties
that have brought a campus together to compose a wagon of new believers with every member jumping in with
The Band:

We Are All Free:
All Right Now.

On a campus so striking it beats a chord in every stance
like a dirty guitar,
singing with the band
notes of where we are:

We Are Free:
All Right Now.

And when their dirty guitar hits,
Boy does it release us.

On this first day of school, many people have arrived
from a patterned world of obstructions that have kept
every generation from becoming familiar with this
free world. Students who have not only made it
for the first time in their family history, but have made
it past the gates where more people are denied entrance
than any other institution.
A place reserved only for the very best…
And it is a place indeed well earned.

Through persistence,
You have busted yourself free…

Now Run.

Take to the oval flowers where this setting & our stories
Put the S in Stanford.
And bring that beauty with you wherever the wind takes you on the Farm:

The courtyards of the dorms beneath the catching Spanish architecture;
Before the extended collection of bronze Rodin sculptures in the garden;
Inside The Old Union, enjoying a different view of familiar faces every time you gather;
And when bike-riding through Arboretum Road on the way to The Stadium…
Where to wear our school colors deep is the Cardinal rule.

And with the World’s Largest Rock ‘n’ roll band playing it loud,
You can’t help but feel it…

We Are Free,
All Right Now.

And we keep the Bears on lock down.

Seemingly everybody arrives for The Big Game,
But historically, only one team shows up.
And through every Bearial,
We celebrate the life…
Of us.
Stanford, this is your life,
And baby, this: is Stanford.

A place where we didn’t just decide to search ways to change the web,
We Googled It.

We didn’t talk about the latest shoes and how to revolutionize the market,
We Just Did It.

And from all that
We have done,
We have run
The Silicon Valley.

It’s the first day of school, freshmen.
Come Join the Band.
Be led out of your new dorm rooms onto the field where
The wind always seems to blow in our favor.

A junior walking past The Claw finds a new freshman seated by the fountain.
He takes concern for this freshman who is in a foreign place away from home
sitting alone, crying quietly. As the first family member to ever leave home to go to college, she is secluded this first day, but she will go on to hop in this fountain and many others with friends, and dance in an Intertribal Dance Group where though in a much different outlet—she will continue to let her expressions
Run Free like these tears.
The junior assured her that it will be alright, and that she will come to love Stanford.
She then lifted her head, and with a rejuvenated smile she assured the kind-hearted stranger
That the tears were from the Stanford wind in her eyes, that already gusts in her heart,
And ever since her heart got wind of this first sight,
She felt the joys of
Falling in love.

Follow ClydeAidoo.com for more poems from the Art of Mind and Alma Mater series shared daily. You can purchase Clyde Aidoo’s latest release, Alma Mater Vol. 3: The West, a poetic celebration of the top universities of the West by clicking the link below.