Collegium: Pilgrimage on the Campus

Poem at Collegium 2007

Pilgrimage on the Campus
Carl W. Jylland-Halverson

Near the bluff where the river bends
just before the ramparts
Explorers free and explorer owned
guard an ever busy vista

Shipping vessels and pleasure crafts
compete for our attention
with rainforest's, limbs stretched high,
in praise of the Creator

“Pick me, pick me.”, they seem to cry,
as if they were all that was
Then to the left across the water, a city rises up
Oz had no more luster

Chains of steel connect the sides
of this busy, separated oneness
Then looking up and further south
Mount Hood completes the crown and humbles all contenders

Behind the guardians
The Redwoods stand
The paths meander
And blossoms sing an olfactory chorus

The chapel calls
And from Body of Christ to Body of Christ we gather
To sing, to praise and nourish one another, and
To begin again, yet once again, our corporate and private journeys

“Pick me, pick me”, we seem to call
vying for His assurance
But we are already His and He is ours, and
So it is time, yet once again, to put foot to path
And continue on the journey

Amen