The wind came cold from Malin Head
Across the cliffs and heather gray
The Atlantic rolled beneath the sky
Just like it did that summer day

The gulls still wheel above the rocks
The lighthouse keeps its lonely view
And every step along this shore
Brings back a memory of you… Like De-ja-vu

The evening settles on the coast
A silver mist begins to rise
The distant boats become faint lights
Like scattered stars beneath the skies

I hear your laughter on the wind
The way I always used to 
And every rolling swell that breaks
Returns another piece of you… Like De-ja-vu

Wave after wave comes crashing down
The sea remembers what we knew
The salt, the wind, your hand in mine
A thousand moments shining through

Though years have carried you away
And time has changed the ocean’s hue
I stand here where we stood before
And it’s like… De-ja-vu

I remember that old gravel road

And the sound of your little feet

Running through the backyard grass

Trying hard to keep up with me

You’d ask a thousand questions

About the stars and where they go

I’d make up half the answers

And we’d watch the fireflies glow

Now you’re sitting at the table

Talking ’bout your hopes and plans

And I still see that little girl

Holding tightly to my hand

The years don’t ask permission

They just roll on down the line

One day you’re teaching them to walk

Then they’re teaching them to say goodbye

Tonight I checked your bedroom

Before I turned out all the lights

Your teddy bear beside you

And your dreams tucked in real tight

The world’s still waiting on you

But one thing I already know
If you keep Jesus in your heart
You’ll never walk alone

A shadow where the morning stood
Sunrise knows my face
Worn out these dusty boots
Still I never found my place

The rivers crossed keep singing out
This is not the life I planned
And yet, I keep running
Because I’m a running man

I’ve followed every county line
Believing I could choose
Holding with both my hands
Afraid of what I’d lose

The mountains bowed before the lands
And were open to the fathers hand
And yet, I did not yield
I took the devil’s stand

Because I was a running man

I’ve carved my name on weathered stone
So time would know I’ve been
The seasons wore the letters down
Like they had never been

Then the road grew quiet underneath my feet
Like it had nothing left to say
And I finally laid my burden down
And watched the light replace the gray

Some doors don’t open to the proud
Some truths don’t shout, they stand
And the louder that you shout
The less you’ll understand

And now, I’m no longer a running man

He rolled into our little town, in 1882
His wagon shone like the morning rain
He said, ”I’ve come to trade, your hopes and dreams
For golden and chain

I have a lamp that burns all night
No candle smoke will you ever again bare
The children can quit chasing fireflies
And get out of the evening air
Where the stars fill the sky,
and the heavens shine down on this beautiful land
None of it compares to my lamp
Said the Tin Man

I have a clock that gives you more time
You’ll never forget to do all your chores
Your fields will be plowed before dawn
So your harvest will yield so much more
Why waste the day just sitting around talking
When every minute can be planned
From morning to night, you’ll stay busy
Said the Tin Man

And I know a guy that will tell you all About your problems
All you have to do is sit down in his chair
He’ll take your coat and make you feel so welcome
And it will be quiet and I promise he will be fair
As he tells you your right
And everyone else is wrong
Take my word, it’s worth the cost
To keep you right where you belong

And as the years rolled by, like iron wheels
On a long slow train

Each town grew richer and busier

Each day

He carried newer, and finer things

The best that money could buy or could be made

Yet every smile behind each face

Started to look just a little frayed

And then one day
A widow watched him pass
When she looked at him and whispered low
“I’ve seen your kind (come and go) before and I know what you sew
You’ve sold them more than shiny things
I know your game
You turned their eyes from what mattered most
Then watched them drift away”

Then the Tin Man tipped his hat
And quietly answered in a deep moan
Referring back to the streets of pride and polish
Where the hearts no longer shone
And he grinned from beneath his brim
That was covered in dust and sand
And said “Shiny things, my dear… shiny things
All I had to do was hold them in my hand.”
Laughed the Tin Man

I’ve stood upon the highest peaks
Where eagles ride the wind
I’ve crossed the darkest forests deep,
Where few have ever been
I told myself no road too steep
Could ever make me crawl
Then I found my greatest mountain
Just Before the Fall

I’ve sailed where angry oceans rose
And stars refused to shine
I’ve wandered deserts scorched by sun
Believing strength was mine
I laughed at every storm I faced
Convinced I’d conquered all
Then the words I heard as a child, whispered
Just Before the Fall

I’ve walked where ancient kingdoms slept
Their crowns beneath the clay
I’ve searched through ruins left by time
Where mighty empires lay
I thought my name would never fade
My footsteps standing tall
Then history whispered quietly
Just Before the Fall

Before honor is humility

A lesson hard to learn
.
Yet the tallest flames can light the night

and stillI got burned
.
The quiet soul keeps listening
,
While boastful hearts are loud and call
.
That’s why the first step down is seldom seen
.
Just Before the Fall

I heard the pines in winter sway

 

Their whispers soft through night and day

 

As snow fell deep in silent grace

 

Across the wild and frozen place

 

And in that hush, so cold, so wide,
A great bear wandered, slow with stride,
Through drifts that rose to meet his chest
In search of sleep, in search of rest

The wind would hum through branch and bone
A lonely, ancient forest tone
And though no bell nor choir was near
The woods themselves rang sharp and clear

And the stars above like embers glowed
As seasons shifted, and her heart-rate slowed
And time stood still, in that frozen land
As she lay her head on the cold white sand

For life persists where few may see
In root and claw, in quiet decree
That even here, in frost’s embrace
There beats a wild, enduring grace

And so he found beneath the pine
A hollowed earth, a sacred shrine
Where heart slowed down and breath grew deep
And winter sang him into sleep

Still through the cold, the forest lay
And whispered truths not heard by day
That peace is found where stillness stays
And strength endures through silent ways

Sleep little one

Sold my soul for adventure
and I remember how they cried
As I kissed my wife and held my son
And I said goodbye

And as I was leaving….She slipped a Bible in my hand
And whispered, Wherever you roam
Even if you don’t find your treasure
This will always be your home.

And in time, The forests stretched for endless days
And the maps became a lie
Every mile was bought with blood
Beneath a cold indifferent sky

The wolves could smell my fear at night
as I wandered, all alone
Chasing a dream that had disappeared…
And gone back to the land I had known

The mountain winds cut through my coat
The river chilled me to the bone
As I searched for the gold
And all I found was gravel and stone

AN now, I can still see her standing in the yard
Her dress beneath the sun
And the children racing through the grass
I can remember the fun

Their fading smiles haunted me
The book she gave me gone
The only thing I had left from them
Was a distant memory of a place I used to call home.

So if someone finds these weathered words
Long after I am gone
Tell those I loved I finally learned
What mattered all along

That the richest man is not the one that left for treasure and adventure
The richest man is the one that knows where to call home

The valley slept in a drift of snow
 where the frozen rivers lie,
And the spruce stood dark in the duskaAs the cold stars filled the sky.
But high above where winds sweep and roam,
The mountain waited for me
to leave … the warmth of my home.

I left the trail where the sled dogs turned
from the cabin flame,
To where the white slopes whispered their quiet claim.
The snow was deep
and air thin
As I climbed, further away
from the world of men.

The Yukon wind has a lonely song 
that it sings through rock and pine;
It tells of roads that are steep and longaAnd a truth that is not easy to find.
To the peaks that stand cold and alone,
With the storm clouds wrapped about;
Like flesh and bone

By noon the sky was a burning blue
 and the ridges flashed like glass
Every step fought against me
 before the snow began to fall and cover my path.
And yet, It was the silence that took hold,
like a living thing
And settled around me,
When I heard the cry of a raven sing

And then at last, I stood
 where the sharp winds tear and roam
Where the earth falls off and the sky descends like a frozen, endless dome.
And I knew more than ever before,
though the climb was a weary fight
That a man can find more than anywhere else
in those empty heights

The mountains hold what the towns forget—
The measure of breath and soul
And the sky, so quiet 
it makes you whole.
And though I had no choice but to turn back 
to where the dim blue rivers wind,
I never again felt like I felt
Standing on that summit
Before I left the summit behind.

There are strange things done in the midnight sun

      By the men who moil for gold;

The Arctic trails have their secret tales

      That would make your blood run cold;

The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,

      But the queerest they ever did see

Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

      I cremated Sam McGee.

Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows.

Why he left his home in the South to roam ’round the Pole, God only knows.

He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell;

Though he’d often say in his homely way that “he’d sooner live in hell.”

On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail.

Talk of your cold! through the parka’s fold it stabbed like a driven nail.

If our eyes we’d close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn’t see;

It wasn’t much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee.

And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow,

And the dogs were fed, and the stars o’erhead were dancing heel and toe,

He turned to me, and “Cap,” says he, “I’ll cash in this trip, I guess;

And if I do, I’m asking that you won’t refuse my last request.”

Well, he seemed so low that I couldn’t say no; then he says with a sort of moan:

“It’s the cursèd cold, and it’s got right hold till I’m chilled clean through to the bone.

Yet ’tain’t being dead—it’s my awful dread of the icy grave that pains;

So I want you to swear that, foul or fair, you’ll cremate my last remains.”

A pal’s last need is a thing to heed, so I swore I would not fail;

And we started on at the streak of dawn; but God! he looked ghastly pale.

He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee;

And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee.

There wasn’t a breath in that land of death, and I hurried, horror-driven,

With a corpse half hid that I couldn’t get rid, because of a promise given;

It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say: “You may tax your brawn and brains,

But you promised true, and it’s up to you to cremate those last remains.”

Now a promise made is a debt unpaid, and the trail has its own stern code.

In the days to come, though my lips were dumb, in my heart how I cursed that load.

In the long, long night, by the lone firelight, while the huskies, round in a ring,

Howled out their woes to the homeless snows— O God! how I loathed the thing.

And every day that quiet clay seemed to heavy and heavier grow;

And on I went, though the dogs were spent and the grub was getting low;

The trail was bad, and I felt half mad, but I swore I would not give in;

And I’d often sing to the hateful thing, and it hearkened with a grin.

Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay;

It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the “Alice May.”

And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum;

Then “Here,” said I, with a sudden cry, “is my cre-ma-tor-eum.”

Some planks I tore from the cabin floor, and I lit the boiler fire;

Some coal I found that was lying around, and I heaped the fuel higher;

The flames just soared, and the furnace roared—such a blaze you seldom see;

And I burrowed a hole in the glowing coal, and I stuffed in Sam McGee.

Then I made a hike, for I didn’t like to hear him sizzle so;

And the heavens scowled, and the huskies howled, and the wind began to blow.

It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks, and I don’t know why;

And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky.

I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear;

But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near;

I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: “I’ll just take a peep inside.

I guess he’s cooked, and it’s time I looked”; … then the door I opened wide.

And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;

And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: “Please close that door.

It’s fine in here, but I greatly fear you’ll let in the cold and storm—

Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it’s the first time I’ve been warm.”

There are strange things done in the midnight sun

      By the men who moil for gold;

The Arctic trails have their secret tales

      That would make your blood run cold;

The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,

      But the queerest they ever did see

Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

      I cremated Sam McGee.

(Inspired by Edger Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee” 1849)

It was many and many a year ago,
By the edge of the deep blue sea,
That a maiden there lived whom the harbor knew
By the name of Rosalee;

And her heart was bound to a sailor bold
Who would one day sail from she.

He was young and she was young,
By the edge of the deep blue sea,

And they loved with a love that was more than love—
As wild as the restless sea—
With a love that the winds in the evening tide
Seemed to sing so endlessly.

And on the night that the storm clouds came,
Ov’er the face of the deep blue sea,
When the wind it rose and it spoke his name
To the crew from the darkening lee;

The sky fell down and the mast was torn,
And it carried him far from she.
And as the days went by, no ship returned
From the wrath of the deep blue sea,

The bells tolled for the ones’
In the grave of the restless sea;
But she stood where the tide meets stone
For she would not let him be.

and so she set out alone in a boat at row
On the face of the deep blue sea,
With the stars above and the name of her love
whispering, quietly;

But the waves grew high and the winds grew wild,
And they swallowed her boat at sea

For it takes and keeps what the heart would hold,
In its cold eternity;

Now the moon still shines on that quiet shore
By the edge of the deep blue sea,
And the wind still hums of a love once lost
Of the young man and Rosalee
For beneath those waves where the cold tides sleep,
They are bound—and forever free

The boy and Rosalee.

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.