God Says Yes to Me

Price: $1.75 ea (License to create copies, purchase through PayPal)

SSAA/jazz string bass
Difficulty rating (1-5): 3.5

Premiered January 28, 2007 by the Michigan State University Women's Ensemble, directed by Dr. Sandra Snow

Kaylin Haught’s poem God says Yes to me is, to many people, a witty, humorous poem about affirmation and feminine power. This was Kaylin’s own take on her poem when it was published in Poetry 180, a high visibility Library of Congress sponsored series introducing contemporary poetry to junior high and high school age students.

Since that time, the poem has also been quoted in many sermons in churches around the country, as many ministers have stressed the more serious value of Kaylin’s poem -- the power of God (whether He, She, or It!) to affirm our lives in even the tiniest, seemingly inconsequential detail.

It’s this tendency of a great text to elicit multiple interpretations that draws me to set such poems to music. And please notice that God loves jazz—most all of God’s answers to the questions are in swing time!

Complete perusal score available upon request.

A review of Vox Femina of Los Angeles' March 8, 2008 performance:

"Vox Femina Los Angeles is a world-class women's vocal ensemble which performs excellent choral music in a diversity of styles...

Paul Carey's "God Says Yes to Me" was brilliant, amusing, and insightful in its treatment of the divine presence in the smallest details of our lives."

TEXT by Kaylin Haught

I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic

and she said yes

I asked her if it was okay to be short

and she said it sure is

I asked her if I could wear nail polish

or not wear nail polish

and she said honey

she calls me that sometimes

she said you can do just exactly

what you want to

Thanks God I said

what if I cavort with squawking saints

forage with a crowd of long legged water angels

sail with a regatta of white pelicans

sing glory hallelujah with the cormorants

drying their wings over the water

and she said Baby I made you for this

cavort as you wish

And is it even okay if I don't paragraph

my letters

Sweetcakes God said

who knows where she picked that up

what I'm telling you is

Yes Yes Yes

(partial score)

click for audio
Vox Femina Los Angeles,
director, Dr. Iris Levine
March 8, 2008

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PAUL CAREY composer / conductor
All materials and information on this site © 2008 Paul Carey and respective music publishers
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