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