In Finland and Sweden, Ruth Mackenzie has been called “the Janis Joplin of folk.”[1]

I like her song “Give Us Room to Roar.”[2] I hear lionesses roaring with power from ancient days. Listening, I see and feel a thousand eager feet that yearn to dance—dance and loudly stomp despite their aching. We will do great things; the words make a solemn oath. We swing our song with gusto, mighty axes with strength to calm the raging sea.

I like it.

What is that raging sea? What rages in your heart that dance and song cannot make calm? Dance and song and human Will—they preserve us; they move us; they make us dream of progress and hunger for that great and lasting peace.

“Give Us Room to Roar” by Ruth Mackenzie:

Give us room to dance, a room to dance in.
Give us room to roar, a room to roar in.
Where our voice is heard, there the trees break
When we hear our feet, sing on a floorboard.

Give us room to dance, a room to dance in.
Give us room to roar, a room to roar in.
How our shoes have ached, our ox-hides groaning.
For the world to quake, with our foot pounding.

We will sing the sea, the sea to honey
We will pound the sea gravel to salt
We will fell the waves like stands of fir trees
Swinging songs like axes with our voices strong.


Images: Women who have roared on this website’s pages and in my life. Not pictured, Ruth McKenzie[3]

[1] See: http://hearful.com/index.php?contentID=2740&id=25

[2] Lyrics and performance found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX1MZly6TVY

[3] See a photo of Ruth McKenzie at: http://www.mprnews.org/story/2008/12/10/theotokos All other photos are in the public domain or are my personal family photos