Cliffs That Never Meet

[Verse 1] She woke to the cry of the curlew at dawn Salt on her lips Dreams still torn From a life where his hand had been warm in hers Then gone Like mist from the moor She kept his name in a threadbare song Wove it through days That dragged too long Walked the same path her grandmothers’ feet had worn To the cliff where the heather is torn [Chorus] On the edge of the world Where the white waves rise We are almost Almost Passing like shadows across each other’s eyes We are almost Almost Every age Every life On this cold Green height You are just out of reach of my sight Two small souls On cliffs that never meet [Verse 2] He woke in a town built of slate and steam Eyes full of smoke Heart full of dream Of a shore he had never in waking hours known Of a girl made of wind and of foam He traced her face in the frost on glass Whispered her name That he’d never asked Then a rain-soaked road An old song from some machine And a pull toward a country he’d never seen [Chorus] On the edge of the world Where the white waves rise We are almost Almost Passing like shadows across each other’s eyes We are almost Almost Every age Every life On this cold Green height You are just out of reach of my sight Two small souls On cliffs that never meet [Bridge] Once he stood on the headland Winter-thin air Boots on the stone where she’d once knelt in prayer He watched the gulls carving slow Aching arcs Felt an echo of fingers At the cage of his heart (oh) Once she stood in midsummer Soft in the rain Skirt heavy Woven with salt and with pain She heard laughter struck from a far stranger’s throat Felt a whisper of warmth At the back of her coat [Chorus] On the edge of the world Where the white waves rise We are almost Almost Passing like shadows across each other’s eyes We are almost Almost Every age Every life On this cold Green height You are just out of reach of my sight Two small souls On cliffs that never meet [Outro] Still they climb Life on life Toward the same wild sea Trading their years For a moment that will never quite be In the wind In the spray In the long Low beat They are almost lovers On cliffs that never meet