Jeff Olmsted: Music
Wanderer, Worshipper
(Rumi translation by Coleman Barks, music by Zuleikha, rap by Jeff Olmsted)
I heard Zuleikha's recording of this song-just a harmonium and her beautiful fragile bird-voice. I went nuts.
Come, come, whoever you are
This caravan has no despair.
Even though you have broken your vows
Perhaps ten thousand times
Still, come again, come, whoever you are
Whoever you are, come.
Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving, come!
We’re on the run like the Prodigal Son
town to town just to have a little fun
but one day you lose your will to roam
and you come to yourself and say I’m going home
then just like the Prodigal Son we find
we were never far from our Father’s mind
We’re waiting for sirens and alarms
But God has only open arms
Or we stay at home like the Righteous Son
with bills to be paid and work to be done
our brother does what we don’t dare
it hurts to share the blood we share
when Daddy calls the family round
to say his precious son is found
our hearts are hard when we kill the calf
we hate to love our darker half
Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving, come!
Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving, come!