Track 7 of the album Platform Nine · 2012
A Letter in the Lining of the Tide
“A love letter written on a beach out of season. I let the rhythm sway like a boat tied up for winter.”
cinematic pop · orchestral pop · light swing · 4:20
Lyrics
November on the beach with the ice-cream huts all boarded I walked the line of seaweed where the quiet waves had hoarded A bottle in the shingle with a cork gone green and old And a letter curled inside it like a secret to be told The paper was still dry, a pencil hand, a date A girl of ten had written it and sent it off to fate She said, "Whoever finds this, I hope your day is bright And that somebody is waiting with a lamp on late tonight" Oh, the tide takes what we send And gives it back to a friend A letter in the lining of the tide Rolling over, rolling home Written by a stranger's hand For a stranger to be shown I will answer, I will write To the shore where she was born A letter in the lining of the tide And the sea has kept us warm There was a town upon the card, a name I knew by heart A place of striped umbrellas where my own story would start I'll stand upon the pier there when the summer comes around And look for a girl who's grown now, with a laugh the waves have found Oh, the tide takes what we send And gives it back to a friend A letter in the lining of the tide Rolling over, rolling home Written by a stranger's hand For a stranger to be shown I will answer, I will write To the shore where she was born A letter in the lining of the tide And the sea has kept us warm Salt on the page and light on the water Years in a bottle, a wish in a wave Somebody listens, somebody answers That's all that any message craves A letter in the lining of the tide Rolling over, rolling home Written by a stranger's hand For a stranger to be shown I will answer, I will write To the shore where she was born A letter in the lining of the tide Oh, the sea has kept us warm The sea has kept us warm The sea has kept us warm