In the dawn

1 Peace! The perfect word is sounding,
like a universal hymn
under oceans, over mountains,
to the world’s remotest rim.

2 Toiling centuries have struggled
upward on a stony way
just to set the torch of freedom
where it flames aloft today.

3 All the old forlorn lost causes,
every fair forbidden dream,
and the prophet’s hopeless vision,
and the poet’s fitting gleam,

4 All the hopes of subject peoples,
all the dreams of the oppressed,
must be ours, our hopes, our visions.
We can never stay or rest.

Source: Singing the Living Tradition #161