Down where the ghosts haunt the headlands and the sea chews names from stone A king climbed up the lighthouse stairs afraid to die unknown He fed the flame for many winters watched it stain the clouds with gold Till every ship for miles around mistook the fire for home And sometimes in the lantern glass a yellow pair of eyes would gleam Waiting where the light burned hottest Just beyond the reach of dreams The lighthouse king keeps burning horizons to prove the darkness knows his name The gulls fall silent the bays grow colder Still he calls it fame And the sea keeps rolling westward Like it never came for him Across the water lantern keepers built their towers by the shore One swore the winter flowers blooming meant there was nothing to fear One buried little captive suns deep beneath the moorland clay And smiled each time the sea grew higher Saying storms have always found their way Some drew lines across the water some wrapped themselves in flags Some sold tomorrow for another season while the tide crept through the grass And the people kept on listening While the years kept moving past The lighthouse kings keep burning horizons to prove the darkness knows their names The children inherit ashes and uniforms While the old men fan the flames And the sea keeps rolling westward Like it never came for them The ravens over Snowdonia circle lower every year The salmon miss the ancient currents the seasons disappear Still the crowds climb toward the headlands Lanterns raised Like pilgrims To the edge And somewhere underneath the beacon something stirs beneath the glass Learning every human language patient as the seagrass The lighthouse kings keep burning horizons feeding the wolf beneath the glass He takes the curlews he takes the lambs He leaves white bones in the grass Beneath the hills the captive suns wait While the sea keeps climbing fences And the heather flowers Out of season Like a wound By winter the wolf had learned their voices By spring he wore their crowns The people followed Past the warning bells Past the cliffs The sea looked west The sea looked east The sea said nothing At all
