Poems And Songs - Leonard Cohen

 POEMS AND SONGS - LEONARD COHEN

'If on your travels you should come upon a book of Poems And Songs by Leonard Cohen - pick it up', is as good a piece of life advice as any. At the very least you won't regret it nor curse the day. How many books of Leonard Cohen lyrics and poems does a person need in their life, though? Isn't just one enough? Or for some is one too many, even? Well, like snowdrops no two Leonard Cohen books are the same and like that other saying 'It's not where you're from it's where you're at', with all the many Leonard Cohen books that have been published it's all down to the selection of content and to the format. To presentation and arrangement.

A large amount of Leonard Cohen's works have come from a dark place, as I'm sure we all know. An endless, dark night of his soul, it could be said. Where his works come to fruition, however, is often a whole different place entirely. It's a place of deep love. A languid, still, deep pool to be drunk from by the thirsty traveller. An oasis in a desert that from a distance might look like a mirage but when reached is found to be real, cool (in all meanings of the word) and tasting like nectar on the tongue. Men - or rather men not bound up in knots of the R D Laing variety - appreciate it whilst women tend to disrobe and bathe in its waters.

You may have noticed, actually, that Leonard Cohen was always surrounded by beautiful women. Though he remained a bachelor, he always had a beautiful woman on his arm. The explanation for this isn't because beautiful women are naturally attracted to depression but because they are attracted to love, to certainty, to humour, and to the self behind the eyes. The men don't know but the little girls understand, as Jim Morrison put it.

A book of Leonard Cohen's lyrics and poems is meant to be savoured. It's meant to be sipped like you would a fine wine from a bottle brought up from the cellar for a special occasion. Each poem, each lyric, each composition is meant to be rolled about the tongue and have it make acquaintance with your palate.

A book of Leonard Cohen's lyrics and poems is meant to be indulged and to indulge you. It's a seduction. An enticement. An intercourse. To coin a Patti Smith phrase, it's nothing less than a brainiac amour. 

John Serpico