With nothing to lose, and yet so much to gain,

Leaders assembled on the Commonwealth plain;

Facing a challenge from Ocean to Ocean:

In the guise of song and dance set in motion.

Thus did Comex, the expedition, release

Its adventurous message of friendship and peace.

Men and women came forward, volunteers in awe,

The same age group expected to take part in war.

Listen while you can to the voice of the ages,

The unchanging wisdom of words in its pages;

Or the skirl of pipes from the castle on a hill,

Perceptions may change but these things never will.

Lacking the resources their peers rightly claim,

When guns and grenades set the rules of the game;

Those haunting echoes, from the castle on a hill,

Would neither be silenced, nor stifled nor still.

From the Stone Pillar of Sarnath, Asoka's Wheel

Aimed at the four corners of the earth to reveal

A truth every child would at once understand:

The divisions inherent between man and man.

Until the Commonwealth grasped the challenge in time,

Expressed in this ballad of reason and rhyme;

For the symbol of Comex, portrayed in a flower,*

Destiny awaits, perhaps this is the hour?

It was on just such a quest men and women went

By the hand of providence on adventure bent:

To restore afresh the brotherhood of man

As only the adventurous spirit can.

With Let's Put the Little Things Right sung by children,

In a message of hope and happiness given;

And 'Little Green Flags' as a pibroch set free

For Africans to dance, and sing in harmony.

So an expedition resonating in rhyme,

With a song for old friendships eroded by time,

Into the wilderness of human relations

Without preconceived views, or high expectations.

As sarod and tabla and pipes start to play

A long overdue raga for everyday;

Old friends on the march, Together Unafraid,

And another small step for mankind is laid:

The pipes are still playing from the castle on a hill,

As the spirit of Comex arouses the will

To raise again its symbol of 'little green flags',

Green and gold pennants among worn tattered rags.

The Green Pennant Awards, like a light shining bright,

A lighthouse beam on a dark stormy night,

Relaying hope and encouragement, through fears and tears,

From CHOGM to CHOGM for a hundred years.