[Intro]

[Verse]

“Why Am I Such a Wimp?”

Verse 1

There is a shore that waits for me

in every town I go

The water dark and patient

the way old sorrows grow

I stand there like a question

the sea has never asked

Afraid of something colder

than what’s already passed

Verse 2

Nineteen degrees in Aarhus

they told me it was mild

I heard instead a warning

from some half-forgotten child

The one who stood at harbours

and never learned to leap

Who carries in his shoulders

the cold he didn’t keep

Chorus

But it’s nice when you’re in

oh, it’s nice when you’re in

The fear becomes a river

that carries you within

You wait so long to lose it

this small, familiar sin

And it’s nice — só um pouco —

it’s nice when you’re in

Verse 3

The Blaskets took my breath away

before I’d even dived

That water was a memory

of someone who survived

Something older than the ocean

older than my fear

Saudade for the swimmer

I might have been, in here

Verse 4

Carla walks in laughing

like the cold is just a door

I stand outside it, singing

the songs I’ve sung before

Of all the seas I’ll enter

when I’m finally not afraid

Of all the summers waiting

in the choices I have made

Chorus

But it’s nice when you’re in

oh, it’s nice when you’re in

The shaking turns to stillness

the losing turns to win

I’ll stand here just a little

then let the sea begin

‘Cause it’s nice — só um pouco —

it’s nice when you’re in(spoken, half-sung, sparse guitar)

Maybe the wimp and the swimmer

are the same man, after all

One who waits at the water

one who answers when it calls

And somewhere in the waiting

is a kind of being free

Não tenho medo, not truly —

just a slow, long love of the sea