[Verse 1] Black pine standing on the ridge Lean and crooked in the wind Roots wrapped deep in frozen stone Like they know what sleeps below Every branch a warning hand Every knot a buried name If the mountain keeps a book Then the black pines wrote the same [Verse 2] I heard them creak above my roof When the moon was cut in two Sounded like a choir of bones Praying through the fog for you There are psalms in rotten boards There are hymns in rusted nails There are voices in the grain Of every house the winter claimed [Chorus] Black pine psalms Black pine psalms Sung so low the dirt grows calm Black pine psalms Black pine psalms No salvation in these songs [Verse 3] My father warned the treeline edge Said the dusk turns men around Said some places wear your face Long before they take you down Still I walked the ridge at night With a lantern in my hand And the black pines bent so slow Like they knew me where I stand [Bridge] If God still walks these hills at all He does it silent, thin and cold And if He speaks, the black pines keep it In their needles, dark and old [Final Chorus] Black pine psalms Black pine psalms Sung so low the dirt grows calm Black pine psalms Black pine psalms No salvation in these songs
