Inauguration Poem by Flagler Professor Liz Robbins

Poet and Associate Professor of English Dr. Liz Robbins wrote this poem for President Joseph G. Joyner and read it at his Inauguration on Feb. 24, 2018

Prospecting for Gold
By Liz Robbins

Here we stand, together
on the sands of the Atlantic.
Here we stand, beneath the clouds
of history, holding ties beneath
the complex figure of Henry Flagler,
sojourning, seeking to build.
Here we stand, on the dried bed
of the San Sebastian, where bright
air meets a briny dank, deep
in the roots of an old hotel, our minds
active with ties forward and back,
hearts stacked with intricate plans.
Young and old, we’re starting odysseys,
rowing ahead into identities.
Dodging monsters, enduring trials.
Learning. Young and old,
we’re students. Students changing
like Ovid’s Metamorphoses,
transformed by punishments and gifts,
fair and unjust, prudent and rash.
Young and old, we are students,
searching new ways to be useful.
We are they who, on the first day,
climbed the steps of Abare Hall,
bearing the boxes of our past, assisted
by those we hold most precious,
new friends, new leaders.
We see the good, and we mirror,
we record, we make new images,
each gesture turning us gently.
Each, a collage changing for
good; together, a resplendent gold
mural, moving. The cleansing scent
of salt on our necks, our hands.
Here, on the sands of the Atlantic,
in the dark overhang of history,
we are teachers. Blue business-
owners. Green artists. Readers and
writers. Red advocates, actors.
Scientists, debaters. Makers of policy,
revelers of facts. Teaching each other
through word and deed. Striving
to keep the deadliest of these
like weapons locked away. Maybe
someday, hate and fear, gone forever.
The ancient Greek poet Sappho
foretells, someone will remember us
in the future.
To which we say, yes!
Someone will, as we live in service.
As we live to make and preserve
beauty. As we live to teach and learn,
our voices holding tremors of truth.
Sappho replies, I don’t know what to do.
I am of two minds.
To which we say, serve. Join the two
parts to make one picture.
Serve as teachers, growing on the bed
of a transformed river.
Serve as students, gold in the sun,
alive with the ties of a generous heart.