Vision of Hope
1. Why, you ask me, do we sing together
In the sweetness of a thousand voices
Butter melts, like a gladness, into the soul …
Why, you ask me, do we sing together.
In the glory of a thousand voices
there we find what we knew not had ever been lost
Ch: We sing a vision of hope
We sing a vision of peace
We sing a vision of joy
This irresistible life
This irresistible dream
This irresistible jewel
Oh, this vision of hope
2. Why, you ask me, do we sing together.
On the mountain of a thousand voices
We can say what alone we never could say…
Why, you ask me, do we sing together
In the rising of a thousand voices
Even those with their ears plugged must hear us now.
3. Why, you ask me, do we sing together
In the refuge of a thousand voices
Is a place where the wounded gather to heal …
Why, you ask me, do we sing together.
In the cradle of a thousand voices,
We are rocking the promise of beauty to come
Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2010 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.
This song is about the power of singing together. Right after the Haiti earthquake of 2010, amid all the devastation, the news was reporting that people were gathering in the streets at night and singing. In Estonia in the late 80s, hundreds of thousands gathered in public to sing in defiance of Soviet occupiers. In South Africa, the freedom songs helped fire the anti-apartheid movement. In this country, singing was a source of power and strength in the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s.
This song is about that singing. It’s also about our work to build a better world. I hope you can find a way to sing it with your communities. I think you’ll find, like me, a certain power that wells up inside you, just in the act of singing it. We sure need that power at this moment. Let’s rise up and make a different way forward!