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 ears

a 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 night

I want to breathe a whisper that shivers like a star

over some strange bethlehem on some cold stone

circling some distant sun

I 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