Blue Boat Home

This is a hymn by Peter Mayer that is in Hymn Supplement (2005) to the Unitarian Universalist Church Hymnal, “Singing the Journey.”

Though below me I feel no motion,
Standing on these mountains and plains
Far away from the rolling ocean,
Still my dry land heart can say,
I’ve been sailing all my life now
Never harbor or port have I known.
The wide universe is the ocean I travel,
And the earth is my blue boat home.

Sun my sail and moon my rudder,
As I ply the starry sea,
Leaning over the edge of wonder,
Casting questions into the deep,
Drifting here with my ship’s companions,
All we kindred pilgrim souls,
Making our way by the light of the heavens
In our beautiful blue boat home.

I give thanks to the waves upholding me,
Hail the great winds urging me on,
Greet the infinite sea before me,
Sing to the sky my sailor’s song.
I was born upon the fathoms,
Never harbor or port have I known.
The wide universe is the ocean I travel
And the earth is my blue boat home.

[Tune: Hyfrydol #196 in Methodist Hymnal]

Loren Bullock

June 23, 2007