Leonard Cohen Poems: poems and songs (Everyman's Library POCKET POETS)

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You left me with the dishes and a baby in the bath. And you're tight with the militias and you wear their camouflage. Well, I guess that makes us equal. But I want to march with you, just an extra in the sequel to the old red, white and blue. So let's drink to when it's over. And let's drink to when we meet. I'll be waiting on this corner, where there used to be a street. GROSS: That's a great poem. That's "Titles" from Leonard Cohen's collection of poems, "The Book of Longing" or "Book of Longing." You know, I just particularly like the part - because I think this is really funny - I hated everyone. But I acted generously. And no one found me out. GROSS: Now, you took a several-year-long retreat from Boogie Street and went to a Zen center on the West Coast. And was it five years that you were there?

So I began to feel that this is a lot of work for very little return. That was a kind of - the kind of feelings - the kind of superficial feelings I had. There were other feelings that are ambiguous and too difficult to describe. They deserve or probably should be described in song or poetry rather than conversation. COHEN: There were times that I thought I was good looking. You know, I don't know about how you feel. But, I mean, there were times I felt I was good looking. But most of the time, you know, especially - you know, the damn thing about it is that, you know, there's comparisons around, you know?

Missing a poem of Leonard Cohen?

Cohen pursued a career as a poet and novelist during the 1950s and early 1960s; he did not launch a music career until 1967, at the age of 33. His first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967), was followed by three more albums of folk music: Songs from a Room (1969), Songs of Love and Hate (1971) and New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974). His 1977 record Death of a Ladies' Man was co-written and produced by Phil Spector, which was a move away from Cohen's previous minimalist sound. In 1979, Cohen returned with the more traditional Recent Songs, which blended his acoustic style with jazz and Oriental and Mediterranean influences. Perhaps Cohen's most famous song, "Hallelujah" was first released on his studio album Various Positions in 1984. I'm Your Man in 1988 marked Cohen's turn to synthesized productions and remains his most popular album. In 1992, Cohen released its follow-up, The Future, which had dark lyrics and references to political and social unrest. Speaking about his religion in a 2007 interview for BBC Radio 4's Front Row (partially re-broadcast on November 11, 2016), Cohen said: "My friend Brian Johnson said of me that I'd never met a religion I didn't like. That's why I've tried to correct that impression [that I was looking for another religion besides Judaism] because I very much feel part of that tradition and I practice that and my children practice it, so that was never in question. The investigations that I've done into other spiritual systems have certainly illuminated and enriched my understanding of my own tradition." [195] a b Friedman, Matti. "Leonard Cohen's Songs of the Yom Kippur War". Tablet . Retrieved September 3, 2023. GROSS: But you've never felt like, oh, some kind of almost, like, double standard was going on where you responded to beauty and yet felt that in your physical presence - didn't embody that yourself?

LeonardCohenVEVO (November 24, 2009). "Leonard Cohen – Suzanne (from "Live at the Isle of Wight 1970")". Archived from the original on November 12, 2016 – via YouTube. COHEN: Well, of course, the treatment of the song, you know, is so very different. I think I changed the tempo, too. I think his is three-four. And I changed it to four-four and, you know, brought in a different - a completely different kind of - a kind of drunken version of it. During the 1980s, almost all of Cohen's songs were performed in the Polish language by Maciej Zembaty. [64] Sax, David (2009), "Late Night Noshing", Save the Deli, archived from the original on September 7, 2012GROSS: (Laughter) You write, (reading) you told me again you preferred handsome men, but for me you would make an exception. And clenching your fist for the ones like us who are oppressed by the figures of beauty, you fixed yourself, you said. Well, never mind, we are ugly. But we have the music. Do you think of yourself as being someone who has been oppressed by the figures of beauty? GROSS: Do you feel, as a songwriter - do you feel a connection to, say, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen - those guys - the kind of classic American popular songwriters? GROSS: That's great. And was there somebody like the character in the song who was almost like a brother to you and then betrayed you by becoming involved with your lover? I mean, is this a story? Or is it based on something that happened? AmericaSings (November 12, 2016). "Leonard Cohen, "Field Commander Cohen" ". Archived from the original on August 18, 2017 – via YouTube. In 1994, Cohen retreated to the Mt. Baldy Zen Center near Los Angeles, beginning what became five years of seclusion at the center. [62] In 1996, Cohen was ordained as a Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk and took the Dharma name Jikan, meaning "silence". He served as personal assistant to Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi.