[Verse 1]
Well the bright road grins and the bright road calls,
With its painted lights and its borrowed walls,
But the honest road is a quieter thing,
It waits for your feet, not the sound of a ring.

[Verse 2]
You don’t have to run and you don’t have to know,
Just mind what answers and mind what won’t,
Keep hold of your names and your small true light,
And don’t take a bargain dressed up as right.

[Chorus]
So keep to the honest road,
Keep where the still pines lean,
Keep where the lantern knows
What welcome ought to mean.
Step if you’re asked fair,
Stand if the bells run cold,
The bright road can have its shine —
You keep to the honest road.

[Verse 3]
There’s a track for the loud and a track for the lost,
And a track that remembers the shape of the cost,
But the one that’ll bring you by truth and tread
Is the one that asks softly and counts who it led.

[Chorus]
So keep to the honest road,
Keep where the still pines lean,
Keep where the lantern knows
What welcome ought to mean.
Step if you’re asked fair,
Stand if the bells run cold,
The bright road can have its shine —
You keep to the honest road.


Mm-hm… keep your names, little travellers. Keep your names.