Music
I write congregational music that speaks to the mystery of God. That paints a vivid picture of Love. That mobilizes people to grow peace and justice in the world. That is free from toxic religion-inspired self-deprecation and violence. I don’t think we sing for God. We sing for each other and for ourselves. This is a good thing.
God is Love
By Matt Boswell (2022)
God is Love is God is Love
God is Love is God is Love
God is Love
Lean into Love
God is Love is God is Love
God is Love is God is Love
God is Love
Hold onto Love
Love can recreate
Love can liberate
Love is making all things new
Love can bring release
Love can nurture peace
Love is connecting me to you
Love can welcome strangers
Love can shield from danger
Love is setting forth and coming home
Love can end oppression
Love can ease aggression
Love is holding on and letting go
Love can cast out fear
Love can make our pathway clear
Love is like a rainbow in the sky
Love can help us survive
Love can make us fully alive
Love is like a spring that won’t run dry
MY INSPIRATION…
When I say “God is Love” I mean it. As literally as God-talk, which is unavoidably metaphorical, can be. Someone once asked me “why all the ‘is’s’ in the chorus?" I wanted to underscore the interchangability of the words. To emphasize that Love is not one of God’s many qualities to be counterbalanced with other attributes, but the essence of who God is, to me. And I thought it sounded nice. Meditative. Emphatic. The verses speak not just to what Love is but to what God/Love is doing in the world, in us.
May We Plant
By Matt Boswell, 2023
May we plant seeds of peace
Nourish them with care
Listen, learn, and stop our harm
May peace bloom everywhere
May we plant seeds of justice
Nourish them with care
Make repair, seek equity
Justice everywhere
May they grow (4x)
May we plant seeds of welcome
Nourish them with care
Space for all to breathe and thrive
Welcome everywhere
May we plant seeds of safety
Nourish them with care
Weapons of all forms laid down
Safety everywhere
May we grow (4x)
May we plant seeds of hope
Nourish them with care
The way and will to make it through
May hope bloom everywhere
May we plant seeds of love
Nourish them with care
Know the good within us all
May love bloom everywhere
May it grow (4x)
May we plant seeds of peace
Nourish them with care
Listen, learn, and stop our harm
May peace bloom everywhere
MY INSPIRATION…
The concept of “planting seeds” is something I picked up early on in my spiritual journey, though it primarily referred to the hope that people might one day become Christian, and that I might have aided them in that movement. Now, I don’t care whether people become Christian or not. I do care that people stop harming each other in ways that are preventable, were we more committed to listening, curiosity, and working toward a safer and less violent world. I want to be planting “seeds of peace” in the world. I want people to recognize within themselves what early Quakers called “the seed of Love” or “the seed of God” and nourish that seed in themselves and in others. How might we awaken and nurture the Love in each other?
God of Light
By Matt Boswell, 2019
God of Light and God of Love
God beside and God above
God in fear and God in hope
Light our way
God in chaos, God in still
God when empty, God when filled
God who speaks and God who hears
Light our way
God who lifts and God who grounds
God of lost and God of found
God of skeptic, God of sure
Light our way
God of all that breathes and grows
God of sun and God of snow
God of quick and God of slow
Light our way
God in joy and God in grief
God in sprouts and autumn leaf
God in growth and God in fade
Light our way
God of Light and God of Love
God beside and God above
God in fear and God in hope
Light our way
MY INSPIRATION…
God meets us in many ways, in many seasons, sometimes in ways that seem paradoxical. This song tries to capture the mysterious and multifaceted nature of the Divine, showing up in our lives and leading us forward. Sometimes we need to move quickly, sometimes slowly. Sometimes we’re sure (that can be good), sometimes we’re skeptical (that can be life-saving). Some things are growing and some things are fading. It’s all sacred.
We Are Waiting
By Matt Boswell, 2024
We are waiting on Christ/Love to guide
We are waiting on Christ/Love to guide
We are waiting for us to rise
We are waiting on Christ/Love to guide
We are waiting with hope for change
We are waiting with hope for change
We are waiting to know they’re safe
We are waiting with hope for change
We are waiting for us to rise
They are waiting for us to rise
Earth is waiting for us to rise
We are waiting for us to rise
We are waiting for rain to fall
We are waiting for rain to fall
We are waiting for an answer to our calls
We are waiting for rain to fall
We are waiting for war to end
We are waiting for war to end
We are waiting for peace to begin
We are waiting for war to end
We are waiting for us to rise
They are waiting for us to rise
Earth is waiting for us to rise
We are waiting for us to rise
We are waiting, They are waiting, Earth is waiting
We are waiting, They are waiting, Earth is waiting
We are waiting, They are waiting, Earth is waiting
Love is waiting
We are waiting, They are waiting, Earth is waiting
Love is ready to rise
We are waiting on Love within
We are waiting on Love within
We are waiting on Love to win
We are waiting on Love within
We are waiting for us to rise
They are waiting for us to rise
Earth is waiting for us to rise
We are waiting for us to rise
MY INSPIRATION…
Quakers speak often of “waiting.” Sometimes we “wait” to the detriment of those who need us to act. Sometimes waiting allows for a more inclusive process and leads to more thoughtful, focused action. Waiting often allows us to listen and learn. There’s a prophetic element to “waiting” in this song: we are waiting for people in power to do something to alleviate suffering. There’s a lamentful element to the song: we are voicing our own and others’ agony as we/they await resolution. There’s an empowering element to the song, which echoes June Jordan’s words: “we are the ones we have been waiting for.” What we wait for may signal what is important to us; this includes our own extremely important willingness to “rise” and take loving action.
Listen
By Matt Boswell, 2025
Listen to the rain fall
Listen to the wind speak
Listen to the bird song
To the murmuring creek
Listen to the thunder
Listen to the hush
Open your heart to the mystery and beauty of it all
Listen to the grieving
Listen to the glad
Listen to the hopeful
To those who’ve given up
Listen to the strong and
Listen to the weak
Open your heart to the mystery and beauty of it all
Listen to your wishes
Listen to your fears
Listen to your longings
Listen to your fears
Listen to your doubts and
To your confidence
Open your heart to the mystery and beauty of it all
Listen in the silence
Listen through the noise
Listen in the tension
Holding every voice
Listen to the discord
To the harmony
Open your heart to the mystery and beauty of it all
Listen to the prophets
Guiding us home
Listen to the travelers
Still so far to go
Listen to the ones who
Love you to the end
Open your heart to the mystery and beauty of it all
Open your heart to the mystery and beauty of it all
MY INSPIRATION…
Quaker spirituality is about listening. Listening to the voice of the Divine, however we name that Holy Mystery. Listening to nature, both its beauty and its turmoil. Listening to one another, to each other’s spoken and unspoken needs. Listening to the wisdom and guidance others can speak into our lives. Listening to our own innate wisdom, our gut, our intuition, our doubts, to that of God within. The more we listen—with curiosity, with empathy, with discernment, with humility—the more we encounter the mystery and beauty of it all. That’s a good thing.
Give a Little Love
By Matt Boswell, 2025
Give a little love to the flowers
Give a little love to the trees
Give a little love to the squirrels and the soil
Love to the birds and the bees
Give a little love to your neighbor
Love to your enemy too (ooo!)
Give a little love to friends and strangers
But save a little love for you
Love, love
Give a cup of water
Love, love
Give a loaf of bread
Love, love
Give ‘em stable housing
Love is just what we need
Love, love
Tellin’ truth to tyrants
Love, love
Marchin’ in the streets
Love, love
Buildin’ somethin’ different
Love is just what we need
Give a little love…
Love, love
Stop the bombs from fallin’
Love, love
Throw your guns out too
Love, love
Save life, don’t destroy it!
Love protects all that’s good
Love, love
Plant a little garden
Love, love
Make a friend or two
Love, love
Fix what you have broken
Love connects all that’s good
Give a little love…
Love, love
Don’t forget that you are
Love, love
In need of love too
Love, love
Keep on giving love away
But don’t forget to love you, too
Give a little love…
MY INSPIRATION…
It was time to write a folk song! This is my attempt, in the tradition of Pete Seeger and other peace songwriters, to write a Love-centered song that speaks to peace as harmony, as loving participation in an ecosystem, as nonviolence, as meeting people’s basic needs, all without forgetting that Love isn’t only about taking care of others, but taking care of ourselves too. We deserve our own Love!