Boat of Silver  

© 1980 J.B. Goodenough

 

            It must have been a dozen years ago that Judy sent this to me.  I took her second verse and made a chorus of it.  Before she died, she told me she liked it with a simple voice and guitar, with maybe a few voices on the chorus, so I include it here that way, with the quiet Quasi Modals (with guest Wendy Cohn) and a nylon-strung six string.

 

There's many ships tarry in the harbor,

Many roads wind across the hill;

And many roses grow on the arbor,

Many's the girl waits for me there still.

 

For swiftly come all the tides returning;

Swiftly go then and will not stay.

There is no boatman can net the morning;

There is no boatman can net the day.

 

The fish run deep, oh, they run so deeply

I cannot find them in the seas.

The lonely road winds the hill so steeply,

I'll lay me down now and take my ease.

 

The rose that blooms blows its petals over

And the thorns lie upon the bough.

The girls have gone now to a different lover;

They will not linger beside me now.

 

I will build a boat of silver,

Steer it with a golden oar,

And I will row out of this sad harbor

And never sail back to this dark shore.

 

 

Boat of Silver  is recorded on the albums All Shall Be Well Again, Schooners, and is also in the songbook One to Sing, One to Haul