Athens of the Midwest

ATHENS OF THE MIDWEST

—for Dr. Michael D. Shonrock
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How does a little college town—
get reborn again here in Kansas?

In the middle of another grim—
Depression across the Land?
___________

One of its colleges the C of E—
with its long esteemed history

Already folded with Kenyon Hall—
now a stately Retirement Home?
_________

I ask you & I ask myself—
will ESU end up this way too?

Will the former KSTC become—
a relic in a dying ghost town?
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Pardon me while I ponder—
here in the Sunken Garden

Alma of SUMMER & SMOKE—
Tennessee Williams guide me
_________

Geraldine Page lonely heart—
let your Blessed Fountain speak

I’ve won an argument that—
I didn’t want to win like you
_________

Surely we need to reevaluate—
making Midwest more moderné

Perhaps Poets coming outta—
Red Rocks will now speak?
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I call upon William Allen White—
everything he did had Class

Peter Pan Park for example—
where Mary White still abides