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Re: Leonard Cohen At His Most Poetic, For You.
Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 1:20 am
by mat james
"I set out one night,
but I did not know" L. Cohen.
This is the Way of the Tao, the Mystic.
Re: Leonard Cohen At His Most Poetic, For You.
Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 6:43 am
by linda_lakeside
Beautiful example. One need not look far to find what we're looking for, I suppose. Mind you, he was working on Undertow for years, or parts thereof. References to that piece have been spotted way back. Then, it seems, when the time is just right, those few deft strokes are put into motion, and to us (me) it sounds effortless, and appears as though without previous thought. *sigh* oh, to start again...but that flies in the face of the Tao itself. The simplicity of those lines is incredibly beautiful - yet packed with meaning.
Re: Leonard Cohen At His Most Poetic, For You.
Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2007 6:22 pm
by Steven
Raugust7,
Real artistry can transcend form (poetic and otherwise). -- And Itend to
agree that "Leonard's poetry has become less obviously 'poetic'..."
Re: Leonard Cohen At His Most Poetic, For You.
Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2007 6:32 pm
by lizzytysh
I agree, Steven, with what you've said to Raugust7. It reminds me of 'the profound [poetry/truth] that can be seen in the everyday' ~ isn't that considered a 'Zen' concept? ~ like the comment he made a long time ago about having to be able to live spiritually, the spiritual 'life,' in the midst of the traffic jam on Boogie Street because you can't always spend your life on top of a mountain, isolated from other things that relate to the life
you choose to lead.
As an example of the "transcend[ing] form" that you've mentioned, "Here It Is" jumps to my mind... it jumps from the poetic to the reality and, in that abutment, powerfully makes its point:
Here is your crown
And your seal and rings;
And here is your love
For all things.
Here is your cart,
And your cardboard and piss;
And here is your love
For all of this.
Leonard continues this general pattern throughout the song:
Here It Is
Here is your crown
And your seal and rings;
And here is your love
For all things.
Here is your cart,
And your cardboard and piss;
And here is your love
For all of this.
May everyone live,
And may everyone die.
Hello, my love,
And my love, Goodbye.
Here is your wine,
And your drunken fall;
And here is your love.
Your love for it all.
Here is your sickness.
Your bed and your pan;
And here is your love
For the woman, the man.
May everyone live,
And may everyone die.
Hello, my love,
And my love, Goodbye.
And here is the night,
The night has begun;
And here is your death
In the heart of your son.
And here is the dawn,
(Until death do us part);
And here is your death,
In your daughter’s heart.
May everyone live,
And may everyone die.
Hello, my love,
And my love, Goodbye.
And here you are hurried,
And here you are gone;
And here is the love,
That it’s all built upon.
Here is your cross,
Your nails and your hill;
And here is your love,
That lists where it will.
May everyone live,
And may everyone die.
Hello, my love,
And my love, Goodbye.
~ Lizzy
Re: Leonard Cohen At His Most Poetic, For You.
Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2007 6:58 pm
by Steven
Hi Lizzy,
Zen that couldn't be brought from the meditation cushion to "Boogie Street," wouldn't
have much utility. Cultivation of the ability to cross-contextualize meditative
experience is at the heart of some "mindfulness based" meditation practices.
There is a book that speaks of the mountain to the Street experience: "After
The Ecstasy, The Laundry," by the way. As for the "everyday," these lyrics of
Springsteen come to mind: "The poets down here don't write nothing at all.
They just sit back and let it all be." The scope of the lines you quoted --
a nice consideration of much of the "all."
Re: Leonard Cohen At His Most Poetic, For You.
Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2007 7:42 pm
by lizzytysh
Hi Steven ~
Zen that couldn't be brought from the meditation cushion to "Boogie Street," wouldn't
have much utility. Cultivation of the ability to cross-contextualize meditative
experience is at the heart of some "mindfulness based" meditation practices.
Yes, this seemed to be the idea that Leonard was referencing when he said what he did. I love the title of that book.
Leave it to Springsteen... such a reality-based poet in his own right. Thanks for sharing a bit of him, too.
~ Lizzy
Re: Leonard Cohen At His Most Poetic, For You.
Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 7:50 pm
by simonelli
This does it for me every time:
We were locked in this kitchen
I took to religion
And I wondered how long she would stay
I needed so much
To have nothing to touch
I've always been greedy that way
But my son and my daughter
Climbed out of the water
Crying, Papa, you promised to play
And they lead me away
To the great surprise
It's Papa, don't peek, Papa, cover your eyes
And they hide, they hide in the World
All of life! It's there!
Re: Leonard Cohen At His Most Poetic, For You.
Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 8:16 pm
by linda_lakeside
Your are so right! It's all there - beautiful!
Re: Leonard Cohen At His Most Poetic, For You.
Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 8:20 pm
by linda_lakeside
Now, if I were a caricaturist, I would have done about 100 of Leonard. I have to wonder if you have....? Nah. I wouldn't post them either.
Re: Leonard Cohen At His Most Poetic, For You.
Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 6:57 am
by remarkblz
' I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch.
He said to me "you must not ask for so much".
And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door.
She cried to me "hey, why not ask for more?" '
Re: Leonard Cohen At His Most Poetic, For You.
Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 12:09 am
by Rosewind
I have a lot of favorite lines, but this one made me see the light myself:
"There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in."
These lines told me how beauty comes into being.
Re: Leonard Cohen At His Most Poetic, For You.
Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 1:36 pm
by mat james
"There is a crack, a crack in everything
now that , those lines, for some unknown reason, (?!) bring me to these satisfying lines:
"So I knelt there at the delta"
Matj
Re: Leonard Cohen At His Most Poetic, For You.
Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 5:50 pm
by upsofloating
Well, from what I've seen, Cohen's poetic style went from the very traditional, and almost modern and less strictly metered Romantic poet in LET US COMPARE MYTHOLOGIES to an almost free-form, short-line poet, like a calm, peaceful Bukowski, if you will, in BOOK OF LONGING. Both are great, but I think his newer poems are the best (remind me a bit of Pound's CATHAY in their eloquence, or some of the Beat translations).
Re: Leonard Cohen At His Most Poetic, For You.
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 10:16 am
by mat james
That wouldn't be "Charles" as your Avatar by any chance
Re: Leonard Cohen At His Most Poetic, For You.
Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 6:54 am
by Steven
Hi Upsofloating,
I agree that Leonard's "newer poems are the best." Also, I understand what you mean
by the comparison to Bukowski, but, interestingly enough, there were some great
Bukowski latter works that were calm and peaceful and i.m.o., were among his better
works. I'm glad that Bukowski found a way to be at peace with a state of greater
comfort in his life; he paid his dues along the way, far more than nearly anyone. Those
works, i.m.o., were great poems, though atypical to the bulk of his earlier stuff.