At The Edge Of The City

Performed by Kobo Town
Lead singer/songwriter Drew Gonsalves

At the edge of the city
The roofs of broken iron
Blaze like a diamond crown
Blessed by the morning sun
And these shattered pavements
Baked in the noonday heat
Are made a mighty drum
By the rhythms of falling feet

Hiding in unexpected places
Resting on the neglected faces
The beauty that we seek
Lies unseen among the meek

Chorus:
Remove the mists that cover me
So I can see, so I can see
Shatter the glass that bottles me
So I can be, so I can be
Remove the mists that cover me
So I can see, so I can see
Shatter the glass that bottles me
So I can be.

At the edge of the evening
Tattered ribbons of lights
Offer electric garlands up
To the fast approaching night
And enveloped in darkness
The light of a dim neon cross
Shines brighter than any star
Against the backdrop of our loss

Hiding in unexpected places
Resting on the neglected faces
The beauty that we seek
Lies unseen among the meek

Chorus:
Remove the mists that cover me
So I can see, so I can see
Shatter the glass that bottles me
So I can be, so I can be
Remove the mists that cover me
So I can see, so I can see
Shatter the glass that bottles me
So I can be.

© Copyright – Kobo Town.
Posted with the kind permission of Kobo Town.

Visit Kobo Town to listen to this song.
....................................................................................................


A Note From The Gull

These are the lyrics from yet another gem on Kobo Town's soon to be released debut CD - INDEPENDENCE. Part of this comment was posted as a response to the post - St. Lucia is a smiling island, on one of my favourite blogs "Now Is Wow." Elspeth Duncan is visiting St. Lucia and in that gentler society is encountering Trinidad as it was before our country started, as my mother would say, to "smell itself".

To affirm the underlying goodness and beauty of many people right here in Trinidad, it has to be recognised that there are still pockets of hope in Trinidad, where you will find people like the ones being encountered in St. Lucia, and it is not yet so grim that we are not every now and again surprised and renewed by a random gift of gentility and a humane touch from a total stranger. If we can describe what Trinidad is experiencing as a "darkness of the soul" or soul drought then it is to be expected that in such a hostile environment, the lushest, the best that we have to offer, will die back a bit, retreating to pockets where they can draw upon their own deep store of spiritual resources to weather the situation. I believe in these people as the real Trinidadians and in fact, I am counting on them to keep that torch smouldering until conditions are right again for new growth.

It is this faith and optimism that I take away from the song, "At The Edge Of The City"

"Hiding in unexpected places
Resting on the neglected faces,
the beauty that we seek
lies unseen among the meek"

The people who are carrying the beauty that we seek ARE the meek. They are not the ones conceited enough to believe that they can do anything better than the Creator. They are not the ones envisioning the unsustainable future. They are not the ones who are arming themselves to shove and punch their way to the troughs. And very often it is upon their backs and over their heads that others clamber and slither to whatever prize is in vogue.

In my earlier days I used to squirm with discomfort at what I thought of as another counter revolutionary admonition, that is, Jesus' conclusion that the meek would inherit the earth. Who wants to be meek when everyone is out to get you or get ahead of you? Drew's words brought the message through. The meek won't have to wait though. I believe that this earth is already theirs because they are not at war with it.

What is meekness anyway? Isn't it strength of the soul. It takes strength of the soul for human beings to meet the needs of others without fearing that such kindness will be seen as weakness or will allow others to gain some advantage. It takes strength of soul for a leader to accept that he or she is in fact, nothing more than a servant of his or her people. It takes strength of soul for us, without expecting to be rewarded in some way, to show kindness and understanding, to smile spontaneously to be grateful, to put others ahead, to be patient....

The writer finds beauty in the ordinary and the imperfect:

"At the edge of the city
The roofs of broken iron
Blaze like a diamond crown
Blessed by the morning sun"

and

"At the edge of the evening
Tattered ribbons of lights
Offer electric garlands up
To the fast approaching night"

He hears the rhythm of life ringing from the unlikely/unsightly drum of shattered pavements:

"And these shattered pavements
Baked in the noonday heat
Are made a mighty drum
By the rhythms of falling feet"

"Against the backdrop of our loss" the writer sees the dim neon cross shining brighter than any star, perhaps a symbol of enduring faith, or the optimism of people who can still believe.

Drew goes on in the song to ask for "sight" and liberation to see clearly and to simply be. It is a beautiful prayer and I feel that I am not wrong in believing that he is also praying on our behalf:

"Remove the mists that cover me
so I can see, so I can see
Shatter the glass that bottles me
So I can be, so I can be.
Remove the mists that cover me
So I can see, so I can see
Shatter the glass that bottles me
So I can be."

Thank you Kobo Town.

"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare