Keep in Touch

WORDS &
MUSIC: Tim Dennehy
GUITAR: Garry O'Briain

This is probably one of the most requested songs in my repertoire, recorded with accompaniment here for the first time. It was inspired by a Brendan Kennelly poem of the same name and has as its core the emotions of friendship and hope. Weaving a thread through the song is the cyclical theme of birth, youth, maturity, death and renewal in man and nature.

The snows that once lay on the ground have melted and are gone,
The trees that once were slim and bare, in green are now adorned,
The birds that once were silent they burst forth again in song,
And young love, that was reticent, walks slowly hand in hand.

Like them, keep in touch, my love, although we're far apart,
Don't let pained indifference occupy the heart.
For though our love has still to bloom, our thoughts they are as one,
Always keep in touch, my love, from dawn 'til setting sun.

I walked today by Spanish Point, where we had lately been,
The waves seemed somehow silent, held our secrets, clutched our dreams,
The waters soft, yet supple, and the wind did gently blow,
The tide that slowly ebbed away, will turn again and flow.

I was thinking of our emigrants, now forced to leave their homes,
Faced with many hardships, often lonely and alone,
Yet hardly one hour passes, when a web of thought spins o'er,
And hope brings that day nearer, when they'll return once more.

Like them, keep in touch, my love, although we're far apart,
Don't let pained indifference occupy the heart.
For though our love has still to bloom, our thoughts they are as one,
Always keep in touch, my love, from dawn 'til setting sun.

The salmon spawned on his gravel bed returns there to breed,
The eel to the Sargasso Sea goes back to spread his seed,
The swallow and the sweet cuckoo make journey now to sing,
The crocus and wild daffodil give birth to a new spring.

And so, the more things changing, the more remain the same,
As through interwoven embraces, I now recall your name,
So, let your love be constant as is the Northern Star,
And think of times of closeness when two as one we were.

And always keep in touch, my love, if we should grow apart,
Don't let pained indifference occupy the heart.
For though our love has long since bloomed, our thoughts remain as one,
Always keep in touch, my love, from dawn 'til setting sun.
Always keep in touch, my love, from dawn 'til setting sun.