The Tide Keeps No Names

[Verse I – female soprano] Salt on the railings frost on the stone Bells stopped ringing here years ago Still the tide climbs through the harbor remains Washing the footsteps from forgotten names [Verse II – male baritone] Windows stare hollow into the rain Saints worn smooth by weather and age One lantern trembles deep in the nave As if someone still waits here though no one was saved [Chorus – layered fog harmonies] Ohhhhh... the tide keeps no names Ohhhhh... the sea does not explain [Verse III – alto + whisper harmonies] Fishermen vanished one winter black Their wives lit candles that never burned back The choir kept singing long after the town Drifted like smoke from the edge of the sound [Instrumental Passage] (upright bass drone / brushed cymbals / low brass breaths / distant electric harp glissandos / electric wind carrying mournful sustained notes like foghorn prayer) [Verse IV – tenor] I walked the shoreline at quarter past two Past doors swollen shut by saltwater blue And somewhere beneath the collapsed cedar beams I heard old harmonies still haunting the steam [Low Chorus] Ohhhhh... the tide keeps no names Ohhhhh... yet still we sing the same [Bridge – overlapping ensemble] “Leave one candle burning...” “Leave one chair near the wall...” “Some voices return with the fog...” “Some never leave at all...” [Final Verse – full ensemble] Dawn never fully arrives here only softer shades of blue The sea keeps folding the night inward like an old hymn no one concludes And somewhere inside the cathedral beneath rust and rain-stained stone The choir still hums to the breakers so the dead won’t feel alone [Final Chorus – huge fog harmonic bloom] Ohhhhh... the tide keeps no names Ohhhhh... but remembers all the same (low brass fades into distant surf and electric harp resonance)