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Radio 3,1 min

Something New: Moniza Alvi reads The Voice

The Verb

Available for over a year

You鈥檇 say it wasn鈥檛 your own voice, the voice in your head, not under your control, not even conjured by you 鈥� it was so resonant, so otherworldly it might have been relayed from another universe, from deep below the ocean. A kindly male voice, authoritative, fatherly, though not your father鈥檚: 鈥業t will be alright, my child.鈥� It was exactly as you would have imagined the voice of God to sound. But why would God have singled you out when there are so many others to attend to? It鈥檚 not what you would wish for 鈥� hearing voices. But this was a helpful one, and only the once. It marked a turning point. And isn鈥檛 that what is so often needed, a convincing 鈥業t will be alright鈥�? Words that, in a way, are hard to dispute because in the end, in the very end, perhaps everything will be. It knew when to stop 鈥� as a poem needs in its bones to know 鈥� a voice not in your power, no more so than the wind or waves.

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