The Voice

I want a voice

I want a deep, resonant, effortless voice

A big voice - bigger than me

I want to speak and hear the floorboards take it up

so that people hear me first with their bodies,

and only then with their earsa voice, strong like an axe to cut through the silence

strange like distant flutes, to still the senses

a voice to quicken the heart like drums in the nightI want to breathe a whisper that shivers like a star

over some strange bethlehem on some cold stone

circling some distant sunI want a voice like the voice of many

the voice of a people

the voice of a nation

and with this voice I would cry freedom

and then I would speak peace