Wilderness Time

8 weeks ago by @newukenewyork

Liner Notes

“Wilderness Time” - #fawm 50/90 2024 song 24

For Judson Memorial Church’s “The Q in Question / Queering As an Act of Constant Curiosity” series: song 6/6. Week 6: Queering Our Hopes.

Here’s a new song draft for my sixth and final week of writing around the current sermon and service series from my friend Rev. Micah Bucey @revmicahb and all the staff and artists at @judsonchurchnyc Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village.

Today is also Day 3 of @sarahspencermusic ‘s #songfancy #5in5songchallenge to write 5 songs in 5 days. The prompt to think about the last time we did something new reminded me of one of our readings on Sunday. Something like: “Look! I am about to do a new thing. Now it springs forth. Do you see it?” I have paraphrased it in my head in so many different ways that I don’t remember the exact translation we were given, but it clearly has been speaking to me. There’s some Octavia Butler in here, too, and my childhood as a double PK (pastors’ kid).

P. S. Yes, I used the muscle tearing metaphor in a song yesterday, but it was actually meant for this one all along, so I’ve used it again.

——
Note on the idea of “queer,” in the words of Bell Hooks, this is “‘queer' not as being about who you're having sex with (that can be a dimension of it); but 'queer' as being about the self that is at odds with everything around it and that has to invent and create and find a place to speak and to thrive and to live.”

#fuc #acoustic #acousticonetake #ukulele #personwithukulele #onetake #girlwithukulele #singersongwriter #midemfoke #banjouke #banjolele #banjoukulele

Lyrics

Grew up in the aisles and pulpit
Baptistry and pew
Never noticed miracles
They seemed far and few

Now the ground is shaking
Don't know how or why
Now the organ's waking
The wheat wants to be ripe

The motion of utopia
The new thing we will do
The god in change, the queering strangeness
Of it all, when church feels true
And the clock on the wall
Reads "wilderness time"
I'm yours and you are mine

Who would choose to be a muscle?
Who would choose to tear?
Hope keeps on becoming
In the ripping and repair

Kinda like this thing we’re building
Kinda makes me scared
Holding out for one more Sunday
Maybe you’ll be there

CHORUS

Look! I am doing a new thing!
Watch! I am doing it now!
Look! You are doing a new thing!
Watch! You are doing it now! Oh,
Look! We are doing a new thing! Just
Watch! We are doing it now!

CHORUS

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