Poem:
© Thedore Goodridge Roberts
Music:
© 1973 Dan Aguiar
Stories of people enhancing their living by wreck-picking, or even assisting the wrecks to happen, are rampant round the coasts of many countries. In this poem, it is coastal Newfoundlanders merely praying for a little divine assistance. It comes from The Leather Bottle, a 1937 novel by Theodore Goodridge Roberts. Dan Aguiar is an old musical friend of mine now living in Red Hook, New York.
The January Men and Then
Some
Give us a wreck – or two,
Good Lord
For winter in Topsail
Tickle* is hard
With grey frost creepin'
like a Mortal Sin
And perishin' lack of
bread in the bin
A grand, rich wreck, we do
humbly pray
Busted abroad at the
break-of-day
And hove clear in 'cross
Topsail Reef
With vittles and hear to
beguile our grief
One grand wreck, or maybe
two
With gear and vittles to
see us through
Til the spring starts up
like the leap-of-day
And the fish strike back
into Topsail Bay
Lord of reefs and tides
and sky
Heed ye our need and hark
to our cry:
Bread by the bag and beef
by the cask
Ease for sore bellies is
all we ask
One rich wreck, for Thy
hand is strong
A barque or a brig from
up-along†
Bemused by the twisty
tides, oh Lord
For winter in Topsail
Tickle is hard
Loud and long will we sing
thy praise
Merciful Father, O Ancient
of Days
Master of fog and tide and
reef
Heave us a wreck to
beguile our grief
Amen
* a tickle is a small strait, or passage
† To the Westward – Nova Scotia or the U.S.
Wrecker's Prayer is recorded on the album In
Concert