Driving Home with Leonard Cohen
Despite what he says
not everybody knows,
not everybody knows
like Leonard knows.
Not everybody knows
that the best songs
are about loss,
endings,
so long,
ways to say goodbye,
closing time,
and that age
can be laughed about
but not at,
if I had a hat
I would raise it to Mr.Cohen
perched up there alone
in his tower of song.
I have posted this a few times before, but since this week is turning into music week at stopdraggingthepanda, I thought I would give it another outing
A note on the genius of Leonard Cohen:
Below is the first verse of “Suzanne”. Notice how he doesn’t hit a conventional rhyme until the chorus where he rhymes ‘blind’ and ‘mind’ and creates a tension and release which runs through the whole song (he repeats that pattern in the next 2 verses).
“Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river
You can hear the boats go by, you can spend the night forever
And you know that she’s half-crazy but that’s why you want to be there
And she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China
And just when you mean to tell her that you have no love to give her
Then she gets you on her wavelength
And she lets the river answer that you’ve always been her lover
And you want to travel with her, and you want to travel blind
And you know that she will trust you
For you’ve touched her perfect body with your mind”
Participating in OpenLink Night over at dVerse.
Stopdraggingthepanda 
Cheers! You sing it. Love Mr. L. Cohen too.
LikeLike
Good point about the rhyme. It’s not something I’d noticed but now that you say it, yes, and it’s powerful. It works whether you notice it or not, kind of like gravity.
LikeLike
What Ellen Hawley said about gravity – and I’d like to add: gravel. Cohen had it – the way Beckett did. Your poem answers him well.
LikeLike
Good observation. It might be the case “that the best songs
are about loss,”
LikeLike
Thanks Frank
LikeLiked by 1 person
Love how you wove so many Cohenisms into your poem. You both give me acute poetry envy in the best way possible.
LikeLike
Hey thank you, Suzanne, I saw LC a while back in Vancouver he was mesmerising, he has never claimed to be the greatest singer but with lyrics like that he doesn’t have to be!
LikeLiked by 1 person
A clever incorporation of his lyrics into the poem. A brilliant talent, he was.
LikeLike
Thank you Mish!
LikeLike
I really like this. Particularly the part about “closing time” and how “age / can be laughed about / but not at.”
LikeLike
Thank you…glad you noticed those lines!
LikeLike
I love how you did a “found poetry” of just listening to Cohen… I could actually hear his songs.
LikeLike
Thanks Bjorn!
LikeLike
Cohen’s words are poetry, touches the spirit so gently
LikeLike
Indeed!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Like a bird on a wire.
LikeLike
like a drunk….
LikeLike
Leonard Cohen is always good inspiration…he has popped up in my words often. (K)
LikeLike
He’s definitely…”The Man”
LikeLiked by 1 person
“First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin…” Love that man!
LikeLike
Thanks Rob!
LikeLike