The Boy Who Watched the Tides

 In Marton fields where the cold winds run 

A farmer’s boy faced the morning sun 

Stone in the wall and mud on his boots 

Hands in the earth and barley shoots  

But beyond the hills where the gulls would cry 

Was a silver line where the sea met sky 

And every tide that the moon would send 

Whispered there’s more beyond the bend 

 Oh the tide rolls in and the tide rolls out 

And a boy learns what the world’s about 

You can till the soil or follow the foam 

But the sea keeps calling you from home 

 He worked the furrows from dawn till dusk 

Through iron soil and wheat and husk 

But the wind from Whitby carried a song 

Of wooden ships that travel long  

Of tall black masts and tarred rope lines 

And lantern glow on harbor signs 

And the stories sailors brought ashore 

Spoke of lands no man had seen before 

 Oh the tide rolls in and the tide rolls out 

And a boy learns what the world’s about 

You can mend the fence or ride the gale 

But the sea keeps writing a different tale 

 So he left the plow and the furrowed rows 

Followed the road where the north wind blows 

To Whitby docks where the coal ships lay 

Bound for the wide world far away  

His hands grew rough on the hemp and tar 

His eyes grew sharp on the northern star 

And the boy who watched the restless tides 

Found the road where the ocean rides 

 Oh the tide rolls in and the tide rolls out 

And a man learns what the world’s about 

Fields may hold you for a little while 

But the sea keeps waiting mile by mile  

Through wind and ice and southern cold 

Through waters wide and oceans old 

The stars above and the turning chart 

Had long since claimed a sailor’s heart  

The boy who watched the northern skies 

Would sail where the edge of the map would rise  

Oh the tide rolls in and the tide rolls out 

And a man learns what the world’s about