Faith of Our Fathers

The faculty ate lunch and sang today,
a dark day in the old chapel. We lent
our less than thousand tongues
unto a fortress mighty as it's ever been,
and though there were brave women too
we bellowed like bass organ pipes,
joining mostly our forefathers
in echoes of their hallowing,
our brief and particular stanza.

So many rich voices among us,
grave and deep and reverberant,
and this was a great comfort to me—
to be still a child after all, still surrounded
by grown men growling low
in their unmistakable harmony.

~Paul Willis