Poet offers insights to Jayhawk experience through wordplay

Описание: "Welcome to KU. Where questions rest, in stacks of answers from the past. …" Listen to Topher Enneking, a spoken word poet and former KU football player, as he weaves the experience of KU and its traditions through this storytelling and wordplay performance. Learn more about KU traditions at http://www.ku.edu/about/traditions/.

Welcome to KU.
Where questions rest
in stacks of answers from the past.
Where dreams crawl out of bed
And learn to walk
Uphill both ways.
Where freshmen stand on stilts
And hang from the rafters,
While the wheat waves
In a fieldhouse
Where the Phog rolls in
Helping us to see
Through the past into the future.
Haunting hosts giving handouts
in a heritage
Too heavy to grasp til you add to it.
So it may be born anew,
Allowing our boots to stand in the ash of oppression’s hate
But shine bright as the sun
While war cries of warriors past
Ring in our ears long after their battles are won.
Memorials telling time, “you don’t have to stand still.”
Because the top of the world
Is just up that Hill.
Where our natural history is an awe-struck echo
Of world’s fair and equal
Past, present and future, prelude and sequel.
Where our flags fly above planes.
Where we build in chalks that can’t be erased.
Stone edifices made to last
So you would walk
Past their doors, down their halls
And let your voice fill their room.
Because only in empty silence can destruction loom.
So stand tall.
Wrap your arms around this crowd
Sing our alma mater and sing it out loud.
Let your voice sing in chorus and reach other nations
Beckoning new Jayhawks to spark new collaborations
Because you are the mortar that will hold these walls upright.
Your future
Your dreams
are why Jayhawks did fight
For the tradition before you
Was merely prelude
For what will come next now that you’re at KU.