(Verse 1) The rain drives like nails and the wind cuts like steel, Our cloaks hang in ribbons, our boots barely feel, Yet shoulder to shoulder we measure the miles, And the storm learns the weight of our unbending wills. (Chorus) Forward, forward, the road keeps its own, Through flood and through fire we harvest the dawn; Every scar is a badge, every blister a crown, We carry the morning where night once weighed down. (Verse 2) We’ve slept on bare granite with snow for a bed, Shared one crust of bread till the hunger was dead, When the passes rose sheer and the bridges were gone, We laughed at the cliff and we climbed till we won. (Chorus) Forward, forward, the road keeps its own, Through flood and through fire we harvest the dawn; Every scar is a badge, every blister a crown, We carry the morning where night once weighed down. (Verse 3) The wolves took our horses, the reivers our gold, The winter tried hard to leave us cold, But cold makes a forge for the heart and the hand, And we walked out richer than kings of the land. (Chorus) Forward, forward, the road keeps its own, Through flood and through fire we harvest the dawn; Every scar is a badge, every blister a crown, We carry the morning where night once weighed down. (Verse 4) We shattered the spears of the borderland throne, Drank deep in their halls from the cups they had owned, The heralds will brag of our banners and might, But we sing of the faces that shared the same fight. (Chorus) Forward, forward, the road keeps its own, Through flood and through fire we harvest the dawn; Every scar is a badge, every blister a crown, We carry the morning where night once weighed down. (Verse 5) So let the sky hammer, let rivers rise high, Let every road end where the mountains touch sky; While blood still runs warm and our voices can roar, The road keeps its own, and we walk evermore. (Final Chorus) Forward, forward, the road keeps its own, Through flood and through fire we harvest the dawn; When the last tale is told and the last hearth burns low, They’ll say here marched hearts that refused to bow.
