Beautiful UBC

First I saw the ocean, magnificent between the trees
Pine, Cedar, Douglas fir – reaching up into the sky
We are branches unconstrained in beauty, unwritten secret pleas
Did the Past invent the Body, to find in Freedom eyes?

A village standing on the earth, bricks configured into buildings
Vines creep up the escalading faces, proposing friendship in present time
Nude is the sand at Wreck Beach, where moonlight is hidden on the water
Studious souls in a party’s reflection signify beneficent blindness

Construction blocks the path, and then in Buchanan A the test takes place
Into the mold of personalities beauty is the concrete which is poured
The SUB results, at the centre of greenery and flowers
Like the symbol undulating in the sky at the flagpole’s tip, spirits here soar

A variety of sweatshirts plastered to the idea of Place Vanier sing
J’ai perdu mon foulard vert et noir sur le bateau, ou nous avons dansé
English Bay m’a captive et la musique m’a envahie de silence
Le coucher de soleil invisible nous a destabilisé, mais les pyjamas nous ont vite appellé

Windows all over, garbage bins from mine but what about yours?
Country music is my “cup of tea” after pursuing dreams on the dance floor
UBC water bottles hanging from the fingers of classmates walking around the morning
Blackberries in the bushes as well as in bags, students can bear what isn’t sweet

Sketches of the familiar campus face are strung into skits
Freedom may be a party in the political sense but also personifies the sea glass
To explore is to see into the ecosystem of the student way and wit
The Pacific finds that the sun does set, but only will He children cast

First I saw the ocean, magnificent beyond the rose garden
Francophone, Anglophone – we reach up into the sky
We are branches unconstrained in beauty, unwritten secret pleas
Mountains are simple in the darkness, but remembered with a sigh