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

The Elfs Song

© Madison Julius Cawein

I.

Where thronged poppies with globed shields

Hail, Twilight, Sovereign Of One Peaceful Hour

© William Wordsworth

HAIL Twilight, sovereign of one peaceful hour!
Not dull art Thou as undiscerning Night;
But studious only to remove from sight
Day's mutable distinctions.--Ancient Power!

Lincoln

© Harriet Monroe

And, lo! leading a blessed host comes one

Who held a warring nation in his heart;

Amid My Bale I Bathe In Bliss

© George Gascoigne

AMID my bale I bathe in bliss,
I swim in heaven, I sink in hell;
I find amends for every miss,
And yet my moan no tongue can tell.
I live and love--what would you more?
As never lover lived before.

The Dread Voyage

© William Wilfred Campbell

Trim the sails the weird stars under

Past the iron hail and thunder,

Go Get The Goodly Squab

© Sylvia Plath

Go get the goodly squab in gold-lobed corn
And pluck the droll-flecked quail where thick they lie;
Reap the round blue pigeon from roof ridge,
But let the fast-feathered eagle fly.

Advent

This Advent moon shines cold and clear,

These Advent nights are long;

The Sower

The winds had hushed at last as by command;
The quiet sky above,
With its grey clouds spread oer the fallow land,
Sat brooding like a dove.

Sonnet Written In Holy Week At Genoa

© Oscar Wilde

O come and fill his sepulchre with flowers."
Ah, God! Ah, God! those dear Hellenic hours
Had drowned all memory of Thy bitter pain,
The Cross, the Crown, the Soldiers, and the Spear.

Premonition

The muffled syllables that Nature speaks
Fill us with deeper longing for her word;
She hides a meaning that the spirit seeks,
She makes a sweeter music than is heard.

To have known him, to have loved him
After loneness long;
And then to be estranged in life,
And neither in the wrong;
And now for death to set his seal--
Ease me, a little ease, my song!