Any Port in a Storm

Beacon of Safety

The fog is as thick as pea soup

The fog is so thick you can cut it with a knife

Follow the light

Guiding Light.

Let the sound guide your way and the light keep you off the rocks.

Keep the lights shining!

Oh lighthouse keeper, hold your light steady and true,
to guide us home and safe

Sail the Ocean Blue

Safe Harbor

Stormy Seas/Skies

You light up my life

The Body Lights
Not far from our window, the lighthouse dreams.
Its steel steps draft short breaths,
the granite flashes a heartbeat
under night's vast sheet.

And now a breeze
parts the curtains into waves:
that glow again, like eyes opening.

When I dream, I too flicker between light and dark.
As you lie beside me, you see nothing of this.
You sleep like coastal distance,
another light in a long night,

your body spread from the pillow
like moon's reflection.
Your skin covers you like water.
You are as full of light 
as your first breath.

Night turns restless on its side.
The first birds sing on whitening sea.

Lonely tower on an
Island near the shore,
Give  
Hope  
To all the
Homesick sailors --
Offer your light; send
Up a signal to guide their
Ships in the night,
Even on this dark, sullen sea.

BEACON
FOGHORN
KEEPER
LANTERN         (Try your own poem) 
LIGHT
SEASHORE 
SENTINEL
WATCHTOWER

The Lighthouse Keeper
DARK! DARK! Comes the night;
time to turn on the light.
TREAD! TREAD! Up the stairs
goes the keeper with his wares.
SNIP! SNIP! He trims the wick,
stirs the oil, clear and thick.
STRIKE! STRIKE! goes the match;
fire on the wick does catch.
GLIMMER! GLIMMER! Spark takes hold
of the wick so pale and cold.
FLAME! FLAME! burns the oil,
all night long it will not spoil.
FLASH! FLASH! the beacon warns-
Beware of rocks! Beware of storms!

The Lighthouse Lullabye
Lay down your head and close your eyes
and rest your weary soul,
For the lighthouse shines through fog, and rain,
and night as black as coal! 
Though winds are lashing and waves are crashing
on coral reefs below,
The beacons call and beckons all
with its majestic beam aglow. 
When stars are out and seas are calm
and eventide draws nigh-
The seafarer rocks in a cradle of waves,
to The Lighthouse Lullabye. 

© 1997 Kathy Walker.  Reprinted here with permission.
Please visit her website, for everything lighthouse.

The Lighthouse Wonders
The lighthouse shines in the afternoon sun,
Almost as though it knows the job is not done.
Old and abandoned,
Left for modern times,
Wants nothing better,
Than to be released from its confines.
Where is the lightkeeper,
Who climbed those stairs so many times?
Why doesn't the light shine its beam at night,
To let mariners know their voyage is alright?
What of the fresh paint needed on walls,
That have started to crumble and fall?
Why is it today, our history means less,
And our beautiful lighthouses,
Are fading fast. 

- Ann Shelton, March 16, 2004

"Minot's Beacon"
Out where the waves of the Ocean
Thunder and break in their wrath
Here on the outermost danger,
Near to the mariners' path,
Standing on treacherous footing,
Towering over the sea
Flash -- I my signal of warning
Of one -- four -- and three.
Wrapped in a mantle of darkness,
Lashed by the wind and the wave
Swaying beneath their encounters,
Often their furies I brave;
And by the tears of the tempest,
Dimmed tho' my radiance be,
Still I keep flashing my warnings
Of one -- four -- and three.
Mist often mingles with darkness,
Pall-like upon me they close,
Hiding my treacherous neighbors,
Whom I am here to expose;
Then with my voice I'm proclaiming
Dangers the eye cannot see,
While I keep flashing my warnings
Of one -- four -- and three.
Winds that have fiercely assailed me
Whisper their gentle regret,
Waves that beseiged me in anger
'Round me remorsefully fret,
Always impassive I greet them,
Duty is sacred to me;
So I keep flashing my warnings 
Of one -- four -- and three.
Here thro' the varying seasons,
Gray weather-beaten I stand,
Guiding the course of the seaman,
Cautiously making the land:
All to all people who pass me,
Seeing the 'Land of the Free,'
Flashing a welcome and warning
Of one -- four -- and three.

- Alexander C. Corkum, 1906

Safe Harbor
There's a wind that blows nor'east my lads,
Take time to hear my plea,
For it's woebegone if you stay to long
On a cruel and raging sea. 
Turn about my boys and homeward sail,
There's a time to stay and run,
To save your soul you'll find safe shoal
Neath the eye of the big Red One. 
Oh the wind that blows nor'east my lads
Has claimed a ship or three,
And taken all both large and small
To the depths of an angry sea. 
Turn about my boys and homeward sail
If the sky should crimson run,
An anchorage there is safe and fair
Neath the eye of the big Red One. 

- Rod Nichols

When You Come Back To Me Again 
There's a ship out, on the ocean 
At the mercy of the sea 
It's been tossed about, lost and broken 
Wandering aimlessly 
And God somehow you know that ship is me 

'Cause there's a lighthouse, in the harbor 
Shining faithfully 
Pouring its light out, across the water 
For this sinking soul to see 
That someone out there still believes in me 

On a prayer, in a song 
I hear your voice and it keeps me hanging on 
Raining down, against the wind 
I'm reaching out 'til we reach the circle's end 
When you come back to me again 

There's a moment we all come to 
In our own time and our own space 
Where all that we've done, we can undo 
If our heart's in the right place 

On a prayer, in a song 
I hear your voice and it keeps me hanging on 
Raining down, against the wind 
I'm reaching out 'til we reach the circle's end 
When you come back to me again 
And again I see my yesterday's in front of me 
Unfolding like a mystery 
You're changing all that is and used to be 

On a prayer, in a song 
I hear your voice and it keeps me hanging on 
Raining down, against the wind 
I'm reaching out 'til we reach the circle's end 
When you come back to me again 

When you come back to me again 

Written by: Jenny Yates and Garth Brooks