From the recording Sweet Mimosa
This song was inspired by an image from the John Sayles film called "The secret of Roan Inish," based on a legend from the British Isles. There was a scene in which the parents, while tending their nets on shore, placed their infant in a seaworthy bassinet tethered to the shore letting the water of the harbor rock their baby to sleep.
Lyrics
North Star by Mary Rocap
I was born in the town of Safe Harbor
And I’ve lived all my life by the sea
I’ve taken what little’s been given
Like my mother and hers before me
As a babe I was nestled in a basket
And the basket was set on the sea
Mother Ocean she’d rock and caress me
Whispering sweet melodies
North Star above in the heavens
North Star above the North Sea
North Star above in the heavens
Guide home my sailor to me
When you’re born by the sea you do marry
A man of the sea with sea dreams
A dreamer of sails, a sail on the breeze
Skimming the open blue green
When a sailor he gives you his promise
And a vow that he’ll always be true
Know the sea will become like a mistress
She'll be jealous of his time with you
North Star above in the heavens . . .
Now riches abound in deep waters
But you gather at risk to your life
There’s a price to be paid for the harvest
And it's paid by the children and wives
On the top of the hill is our cottage
And it faces the east to the sea
Through the day I will scan the horizon
Hoping his ship will I see
North Star above in the heavens . . .