Sing Me Home Tonight

Instrumental Intro

Verse 1

The harbor lights are swaying slow

I count the boats and let them go

Your hair the color of the evening fire

Still burning somewhere I don't know

I hum a tune the wind forgot

Salt on my lips the whole night through

Somewhere a bell begins to toll

And every note comes back to you

Chorus

O my flame-haired one

O my far-off shore

I would cross the cold sea

Just to hear you once more

O my flame-haired one

O my only light

Sing me home tonight

Verse 2

I keep your ribbon in my coat

A little thread of scarlet thread

The moon is thin as onion skin

And all my prayers go unread

My brothers ask me why I stay

Out here where nothing ever grows

I tell them love is not a place

It is a woman and she knows

Chorus

O my flame-haired one

O my far-off shore

I would cross the cold sea

Just to hear you once more

O my flame-haired one

O my only light

Sing me home tonight

Bridge

Sing me home

Sing me home

Sing me over water

Sing me over stone

Sing me home

Sing me home

Sing me back to her

Verse 3

The fishermen are heading in

Their lanterns bobbing on the swell

I fold my hands I bow my head

And wish you safe and wish you well

If I grow old before I sail

If winter takes my name from me

Remember how I loved you then

Beside the grey and grieving sea

Chorus

O my flame-haired one

O my far-off shore

I would cross the cold sea

Just to hear you once more

O my flame-haired one

O my only light

Sing me home tonight

Outro

O my flame-haired one

Sing me home

Verse 4

The season turns the olive grey

I watch the young men sail away

They wave their caps they call my name

I only smile and stay

A widow keeps a lamp for two

She says the waiting is a prayer

I never learned to pray like her

I just keep looking there

Verse 5

My father's voice is in the stone

He sang the old songs all alone

He said a man must know his port

Before he calls it home

But you were never any port

You were the open water wide

The one direction I could not

Set down or set aside

Chorus

O my flame-haired one

O my far-off shore

I would cross the cold sea

Just to hear you once more

O my flame-haired one

O my only light

Sing me home tonight

Verse 6

They say the sea forgets a face

That time will wash the salt away

But every morning I still wake

And say your name and stay

The church bell cracks the morning air

The gulls go scattering like ash

I wear your ribbon on my chest

And let the winters pass

Bridge

Sing me over

Sing me under

Sing me past the harbor wall

Sing me older

Sing me younger

Sing me till I hear you call

Verse 7

If she should ask about the years

Tell her I kept the fire low

Tell her I never learned to leave

The only place I know

The nets are mended by the pier

The children run along the quay

And somewhere in the evening air

She's still the color of the day

Chorus

O my flame-haired one

O my far-off shore

I would cross the cold sea

Just to hear you once more

O my flame-haired one

O my only light

Sing me home tonight

Verse 8

The moon has worn itself to bone

The boats have all come drifting home

I stand the way I've always stood

And wait for you alone

My hands are rough my back is bent

The harbor keeps its old complaint

But love is not a thing that ends

It is a thing that waits

Outro

O my flame-haired one

Sing me home tonight

O my flame-haired one

Sing me home

Sing me home

Sing me home tonight