Peter, Sew Your Shadow On

9 weeks ago by @newukenewyork

Liner Notes

“Peter, Sew Your Shadow On” - #fawm 50/90 2024 song 14

For Judson Memorial Church’s “The Q in Question / Queering As an Act of Constant Curiosity” series: song 4/6. Week 4: Queering Our Shadows.

Here’s a new song draft for my fourth 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. i found myself disagreeing with a number of interpretations of “shadow” in our post-service zoom discussion group and wanted to cast it into a different light, as it were. Bill mentioned Peter Pan just as I was thinking of the image of Wendy sewing on Peter’s shadow, and I spun off from there.

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.”

This series so far: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6mTUlPL-MmDowRNMY7fadcs17um8IlSW&si=65_H3gS5zZ5xs5cz

#fuc #acoustic #acousticonetake #ukulele #personwithukulele #onetake #girlwithukulele #singersongwriter #midemfoke #americanasati

p.s. Some of the imagery is related to a Rumi poem that was shared in our service. https://medium.com/eco-theology-2/rumi-on-trauma-9a546e56ea1 to see the translation.

Lyrics

In my boat
I’ve no oars or arms
If the pirate comes,
He can do no harm
With hat or hook
Or storybook

If he takes each plank
Every board and bolt
If he strips me down
To a floating soul
I’ll be me
I’ll be free

Peter, sew your shadow on
Wendy, hold the light
All the Lost ones wait
Will you crow again at night?
Will you grow up to be grown up?
Will you say farewell to flight?
Peter, sew your shadow on
There’s going to be a fight

Here’s the crack
Where the dark gets in
Am I soft inside?
Do I float or swim?
What’s the quiet part
Of my clock-tick heart?

If the crocodile
in her lurking way
Sheds a tear for me
I will turn and say,
“All the time,
It’s been mine.”

At dusk in Never-Never Land
The questions come to dance
Just when you think your ending’s written
Here’s another chance
My heart is tender as a stone
Three beats away from breaking
Our wilding shadows wait for us
To join in on the making

CHORUS

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