Classic Northern Diversions

Lyrics

I took a train out of Leeds in the smear and stain I saw the city pass by in the shuffling rain I′m in Huddersfield drinking in the Slubber's Arms And I walked through the slush by broken farms Where huddling sheep are turning grey In the cold light of a nothing day It took me fifty long years just to work out That because I was angry didn′t mean I was right Now I'm sitting in a bar alone With the jukebox playing a terrible song The bartender says I see it's you again I been drinking deep from a jar of pain Jar of pain [Chorus] I remember once I went home like this I had my mother in tears as I felt her kiss Now my mother is heavenbound And her body lies in unmarked ground Unmarked ground In every heart in every home There′s a dying man who lives alone He close the door and he turn away And the tide rushes in on a fatal shore I can never get too close to coal With a glass in my hand and the ember′s crack But the fire's gone out and the chimney′s closed And there's a round jeer sticking on my back [Chorus] I remember once I went home like this I had my mother in tears as I felt her kiss Now my mother is heavenbound And her body lies in unmarked ground Unmarked ground I took a train out of Leeds in the smear and stain I saw the city pass by in the shuffling rain And with chimneys leaning to the sea I got the salt of Sunderland creasing me I took a jar of pain to the soaking field And to the lonely seawall in South Shields [Chorus] I remember once I went home like this I had my mother in tears as I felt her kiss Now my mother is heavenbound And her body lies in unmarked ground Unmarked ground And if I was a man which I am not Standing in the last of rotten snow I'd fall on my knees and I′d cry out loud To the snowy river and the icy flow I took a train out of Leeds in the smear and stain I saw the city pass by in the shuffling rain {spoken word - Robert Bly} 'Oh Lord help me Because my boat is so small And your sea Is so immense'