"Through My Prayers" lyrics

To my darling Melody Anne
We shall not meet again
By the time you read this I will be dead

It's hard to believe
I won't see you again
We were just fighting when winter began
The coldness of our words
Competing with the wind from the north

Still they make me shiver
But in a very different way
The pages of the calendar kept turning away
I have some better words now
But it's too late to say them to you

My dream of all dreams
And my hope of all hopes
Is only to tell you and make sure you know
How much I love you and how much I always did

And yes, I know you loved me
I could see it in your eyes
And it was in your struggle and it was in your mind
And it was in the smile you gave me when I was a kid

To my wife... I have led my ship into the teeth of a squall. My entire crew is dead but for we four in the lifeboat. All those other good men dead and drowned. And I did not have the grace to die with them. I never had any grace

But now I understand
And now my only chance
To talk to you is through my prayers
I only wanted to tell you I cared

Final words to my dear mother and father... I will not let my brother die alone

Every night after and every day since
I found myself crying when the memory hits
Sometimes it knocks me down
Sometimes I can just put it away

Down in my mind, where I don't care to go
The pain of a lesson is letting me know
If you have love in your heart
Let it show while you can

Yes. Now I understand
But now my only chance
To talk to you is through my prayers

I only wanted to tell you
I only wanted to tell you
I only wanted to tell you

I only wanted to tell you I cared

And who do I write to? The sporting ladies and dockside whores? There is no one awaiting my last words. No one to sing along with my peculiar threnody... No tears for me. This is the life I have made