Nancy Kerr 2010
Swan song for her 12 years living on narrowboats on the inland waterways. Their boat community was drifting away, and she was pregnant; they soon thereafter moved to Sheffield.
Nancy Kerr & James Fagan: https://kerrfagan.bandcamp.com/track/queen-of-waters
Well away my love away for we’re sailing home today,
On a boat called memory (hail home, hearts that long for the land)
Oh she’s like some Persian queen with her opal robes serene,
In the lamplight shimmering (hail home, hearts that long for the land)
Chorus:
On a blue-jay morning feathering thorny memories
Hail home, hearts have been too long away,
On a well-worn byway travelling, magpie gathering
Farewell queen of waters.
Well it’s hard to roll in mirth when your feet don’t touch the earth,
And the wolf comes hungering (hail home, hearts that long for the land)
Folly never foots the bill and we all shall pay in full,
For a life of melody (hail home, hearts that long for the land)
Well I should have sowed my corn, but I danced until the dawn,
Like an ant grasshoppering (hail home, hearts that long for the land)
Oh there must be better ways, for to keep the debts at bay,
And the whiskey trickling (hail home, hearts that long for the land)
So we’ll bid our ship adieu, there’s a mooring in the blue,
Where the gulls are gathering (hail home, hearts that long for the land)
Oh she’s like some Persian queen and her like shall ne’er be seen,
Only in our reverie (hail home, hearts that long for the land)