At the Choral Concert by Tim Nolan : American Life in Poetry

The Poetry Foundation

Library of Congress

University of Nebraska
at Lincoln

American Life in Poetry: Column 248

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

Many if not all of us have had the pleasure of watching choruses of young people sing. It’s an experience rich with affirmation, it seems to me. Here is a lovely poem by Tim Nolan, an attorney in Minneapolis.

At the Choral Concert

The high school kids are so beautiful

in their lavender blouses and crisp white shirts.

They open their mouths to sing with that

far-off stare they had looking out from the crib.

Their voices lift up from the marble bed

of the high altar to the blue endless ceiling

of heaven as depicted in the cloudy dome—

and we—as the parents—crane our necks

to see our children and what is above us—

and ahead of us—until the end when we

are invited up to sing with them—sopranos

and altos—tenors and basses—to sing the great

Hallelujah Chorus—and I’m standing with the other

stunned and gray fathers—holding our sheet music—

searching for our parts—and we realize—

our voices are surprisingly rich—experienced—

For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth—

and how do we all know to come in

at exactly the right moment?—Forever and ever—

and how can it not seem that we shall reign

forever and ever—in one voice with our beautiful

children—looking out into all those lights.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2008 by Tim Nolan from his most recent book, The Sound of It, New Rivers Press, 2008, by permission of the author and publisher. First printed in Ploughshares, Winter 2007-2008. Introduction copyright © 2013 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

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