Monday, August 29, 2011

Leonard Cohen on a Plane


"There's a crack in everything - that's how the Light gets in."

Leonard Cohen

A PROMISE

I will never
return
the Holy Grail
to its
"rightful owners."



BASKET

You should go
from place to place
recovering the poems
that have been written for you,
to which you can affix your signature.
Don't discuss these matters
with anyone.
Retrieve.  Retrieve.
When the basket is full
someone will appear
to whom you can present it.
She will spread her wide skirt
and sit down
on a black stone
and your basket will bounce
like a speck in sunlight
on the immense landscape
of her lap.

WISH ME LUCK

a fresh spiderweb
billowing
like a spinaker
across the open window
and here he is
the little master
sailing by
on a thread of milk
wish me luck
admiral
I haven't finished anything
in a long time

Leonard Cohen, from The Book of Longing
                                             Harper Collins, 2006

4 comments:

sukipoet said...

leonard cohen is brilliant. as is your artwork. have a good flight home. all you have experienced has made you deeper, richer, more resonant. I am guessing.

Valerianna said...

He is a word magician..... thanks!

T said...

Have always loved leonard cohen. His music, his words, are intimately connected to the 60s - and yet are so huge and beautiful that they move through all of time.

Lauren Raine said...

Thanks so much my friends for your good wishes.....it looks like you've survived Irene, and I'm so glad of that!

I love Leonard Cohen for his blend of so called dark and light - his art and heart includes Zen, the Goddess, and "boogie street", and all his questions, especially now that he is old, are open.