Emmy The Great – North lyrics

There's a place where I'm gonna leave to
When all this questioning is through
I'm gonna set my course to somewhere further north
Than my eyes have ever viewed
And though I know that the thought precedes me
I know that others seek it, too
But when I get where the needle leads me
Well, I swear and I swear you'll never lead me away again

And in the time when the peace of islands
Was first by human hand disturbed
They built their houses and they said obedience
Was all the lives of men were worth
And in the shadows of their temperance
They laid boundaries in the dirt
And when the door had a narrow entrance
With their hands to their shirts
They would pray for the non-believers

And there's a place called North
And they're gathering there to sing
And I knock three times and beg them
But they will not let me in
And oh my girl, they say, you're the carrier to no gift
But I'll lay what I can somewhere north of the sand
Would you turn me away again?

And do you go where the needle leads to?
And when you get there will you change?
Out where the nights are soft
And now you go because you think that paradise should be tamed
And now you live as by a map of humanity
And now you grip it 'cause you think that it saves
But I've seen what you see and it's different to me
I see lights to the shore
And all these hearts beating other rhythms

Now they die to be born
And all their mysteries are dying with them

And there's a place called North
And you're gathering there to sing
And I knock three times and beg you
But you will not let me in
But oh, I loved so hard, now I'm carrier to this gift
And I'll lay what I can somewhere north of the sand
Would you turn me away again?

And would these winds would lift
And they'd carry me to your door
And I knock three times and tell you
I can't help where I was born
But don't I love enough, isn't holiness where it falls?
If I take what I have to the north,
Is there room on your piece of Heaven?

Or would you turn me away again?