Adversary (feat. Levi The Poet)

by Of Light & Shadow

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about

Maybe our most ambitious track yet. So many moving parts and SOOO much talent!

This song was born on the heels of having finished Gregory Boyle's book, "Tattoos on the Heart". A collection of stories of kinship and allyship. A realization that if God is anywhere, He is incarnate with *them*.

lyrics

Mind your adversary
the wilderness is broad
mind the ordinary
within the face of God

Hear the desert singing
the dark before the dawn
the marginal are bringing
the light to lead us on

Beg or borrow (a promise still in sight)
joy or sorrow (carry through the night)
as the broken-hearted (through the fray)
come and lead the way (oh lead the way)

The wondering and waiting
but have you eyes to see
the beauty all around you
in wasteland imagery

Watch for signal fires
the stories that are told
the hopeful and outliers
unbridled uncontrolled

Beg or borrow (a promise still in sight)
joy or sorrow (carry through the night)
as the broken-hearted (through the fray)
come and lead the way (oh lead the way)

As all endeavor (journey hand and hand)
come whoever (come and understand)
where forgotten faces (come fade away)
where they come to stay (oh lead the way)

Mercy be the air
may our whole life be a prayer
mind your adversary

I didn’t expect to meet God in here
But I caught a glimpse of
A signal flare hidden within
The pit of the void of emptiness
A pinprick of light inside
A cloud of unknown witnesses
Blessed are the blinded ones
Returned to the bliss of ignorance

I didn’t expect to meet God out there
But there she was:
tendered by the desert
Hellbent on breath and dust
And mercy only the sufferering
Are foolish enough to trust so
Blessed are the insufferably
Staunch in her gentle love

I didn’t expect to meet God today
But there they were: free inside the faces
Of caged-in *not-my-neighbors*
They glimmer along the borders
Where the meek inherit the earth, so
Blessed are the disparaged
Who’ve come to know their worth

Surprise! The divine comes to us
Disguised as them, rubbing sand
Into our eyes from every wilderness
And mixing it with spit from every well
From which they’ll never thirst again
Blessed be the other in whom
Our Spirit subsists

credits

released February 9, 2022
Lead vocals & Keys - Ben Lawry
Back up vocals - Cat Powdrell
Echoes - David Meyers
Bass - Artha Meadors
Drums & Guitars - Jesse McDermott
Spoken Word - Levi The Poet

Mixed and mastered by Kenny Riley @ Rio Grande Studios in Albuquerque, NM

license

all rights reserved

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about

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Of Light & Shadow Albuquerque, New Mexico

Of lIght & Shadow is communal project. Every single song is unique in that we've never all in been in the same room at the same time. Different players and talents on every song.

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