All Clouds the Sky Lyrics

All Clouds the Sky
(From The Good Hope, National Theatre 2001-2002)
..................

How high the price
How deep the water
That makes widows out of wives
For this is not fish you're eating
This is men's lives...

All clouds the sky
The boats are leaving
One last goodbye
Dark waters call us on
The Northern Sea
Knows well the sound of grieving
How slight the fate
We put our trust upon

Then go we must
No longer can we tarry
The water's wide
Yet we must go and try
And like a bird on a silvery morning
Home to your side we will chance to fly

**************************
And the water shines like patent leather
We search for signs upon this lifeless ground
The reckoning sky calls down some heavy weather
We've come for fish, and fish need must be found

Then go we must
No longer can we tarry
The water's wide
Yet we must go and try
And like a bird on a silvery morning
Home to your side we will chance to fly

And we ride the flood and trust to glory
Some planks of wood no thicker than your thumb
It's all that keeps the telling of the story
From being lost or maybe being won

Then go we must
No longer can we tarry
The water's wide
Yet we must go and try
And like a bird on a silvery morning
Home to your side we will chance to fly

All clouds the sky
The boats are leaving
One last goodbye
Dark waters call us on
The Northern Sea
Knows well the sound of grieving
How slight the fate
We put our trust upon