Salt & Sail

[Verse I] O haul the grey rope, lads, while the tide breathes low, The oars hum a hymn that the old winds know. Salt on the tongue and stars kept thin, We sing to the dark so the dark sings in. [Refrain] Ho—slow the hand and mind the seam, The sea keeps count of more than we deem. What’s shouted loud is seldom true, The quiet word sees the voyage through. [Verse II] There’s a craft in the knuckle, a craft in the eye, In knowing when not to command the sky. A wave can be bent, a wave can be stirred, But the wave remembers the weight of the word. [Refrain] Ho—slow the hand and mind the seam, The sea keeps count of more than we deem. What’s shouted loud is seldom true, The quiet word sees the voyage through. [Verse III] The gull takes the wind, the stone takes the fall, Each thing keeps faith with the shape of all. The net holds fish, but the net is torn When pride forgets why it first was worn. [Refrain] Ho—slow the hand and mind the seam, The sea keeps count of more than we deem. What’s shouted loud is seldom true, The quiet word sees the voyage through. [Verse IV] We learned from the keel and the patient mast: What’s bound too tight will not long last. Power that rushes to crown the day Leaves night unpaid, and debt has its way. [Refrain] Ho—slow the hand and mind the seam, The sea keeps count of more than we deem. What’s shouted loud is seldom true, The quiet word sees the voyage through. [Verse V] There’s a name for the storm and a name for the calm, And a deeper name held safe in the palm. To speak it for self is to thin the world, To keep it is to see it unfurled. [Refrain] Ho—slow the hand and mind the seam, The sea keeps count of more than we deem. What’s shouted loud is seldom true, The quiet word sees the voyage through. [Verse VI] A man meets his shadow at the oar’s dull beat, Finds truth is a circle with careful feet. You don’t slay the dark nor banish the tide— You learn where to stand, and whom to guide. [Refrain] Ho—slow the hand and mind the seam, The sea keeps count of more than we deem. What’s shouted loud is seldom true, The quiet word sees the voyage through. [Verse VII] So drink to the crew and the shared night watch, To hands that mend more than they botch. The world is a balance, borrowed and frail, Kept whole by the many who reef the sail. [Refrain] Ho—slow the hand and mind the seam, The sea keeps count of more than we deem. Sing low, sing long, let silence be crew— The truest course is the one we don’t force through.