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Kate

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A friend from my writing class started me thinking about Leonard Cohen. Good Grief – I was such a fan of his writing in the early seventies. I used to sit in my one bedroom flat in Prahran, an inner suburb of Melbourne, hugging my misery after my divorce. Cohen’s painful lyrics and voice became my pain – and I inflicted Cohen on all my friends.

One of my favourites at the time was

“So Long Marianne -

Come over to the window, my little darling,
I'd like to try to read your palm.
I used to think I was some kind of Gypsy boy
before I let you take me home.
Now so long, Marianne, it's time that we began
to laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again.”


(Most of my Phillistine friends thought Cohen was woeful! They couldn’t see his deeper meanings, his pathos.

Well, maybe I was a little bit maudlin having been recently divorced. My emotions were throbbing to Cohen’s refrains. I actually used the "read your palm" bit on a lovely young man I met at a pub - successfully I might add. We had a brief but loving relationship.

I went back to Cohen and sat and drank heaps of cheap red wine and wallowed in my misery and loneliness:

“Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye

I loved you in the morning, our kisses deep and warm,
your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm,
yes, many loved before us, I know that we are not new,
in city and in forest they smiled like me and you,
but now it's come to distances and both of us must try,
your eyes are soft with sorrow,
Hey, that's no way to say goodbye.”


(I’m hoping as I read this out to my writing group that my friend can sing! I’ve got a voice like a frog).

“I'm not looking for another as I wander in my time,
walk me to the corner, our steps will always rhyme
you know my love goes with you as your love stays with me,
it's just the way it changes, like the shoreline and the sea,
but let's not talk of love or chains and things we can't untie,
your eyes are soft with sorrow,
Hey, that's no way to say goodbye.”


I had forgotten just how good Cohen’s verse was. Such as:

“Teachers
I met a woman long ago
her hair the black that black can go,
Are you a teacher of the heart?
Soft she answered no.
I met a girl across the sea,
her hair the gold that gold can be,
Are you a teacher of the heart?
Yes, but not for thee.”


And so on. I was prompted to search the net for Cohen after speaking to my friend tonight (4/6/05) and was amazed to see him performing with Bono and still alive and kicking.

Way to go!!!
 
OVER LIKE A SHOT

Kate, never mind Cohen, you should have phoned me when you were fed up, I would have jumped on the first [amphibious] bus.
 
Oh We do mind Cohen

:) Yo Katie,, never mind eh :roll:

Leonard Cohen, Is well minded by some of Us :wink:

Rather Bob Dylan,esque with Romantic lilting, definitely more Tuneful
than dear Bob, but then Everybody must get stoned 8)

Yeh, Lenny,s Good & wth Bono,,,superb,,, :lol: Luv Chuckie x J
 
Kate, my love
I enjoyed your post, thanks for sharing some of your past with us
Cohen's verses gave you comfort in your dark days and so you rightly treasure them
But now that times are good for you again you should put Cohen away in a cupboard lest he steal your happiness with his reminders of the dark days
I too had my dark days when my marriage ended, I took my comfort from music as well
I'd sit in my cups and play sad songs all night, I could tell you the words of every Simon and Garfunkel song going!
Those dark days lasted about three years and then I managed to get back to the real world and now times are good so all my sad songs are banished to the loft, their time has gone
Those demons are sneaky, they'll creep back into your life if you let 'em :wink:
 
Prahran

:D Oh Kate you'll never believe this, but I have been to Prahran. One of Colin's oldest and dearest friends lives there in Airlie Ave. He was also best man at our wedding in the UK.
We went to a local pub there, where people wrapped Dollar notes round 20 cent pieces and with a drawing pin in too, then they throw them up to the ceiling to stick, once a year the money was collected and given to charity.
(I have a photo somewhere, will find it and post it on the Album).

Chris :)
 
JERRYD - I am a lot older and wiser now believe me! Then I was young and impressionable - but maybe I miss those days?? Although I still think Cohen's poetry is good. I was telling my daughter about him, as some of her students she teaches (teenagers) are into Dillon!

DAVEB - Well, if I had known you were there I'm sure I'd have sent for you :)

CHRIS - How cool! I know that pub, but I just can't bring the name of it into my mind. My mum and dad moved to Melbourne and lived in South Yarra and dad used to go to that pub. Was the charity Variety Club? What a small world it is. :)
 
GUESS WHAT? I just saw Leonard Cohen on our TV (Channel SBS). He is 71 now and has produced a new book of poetry which he read from in the interview "Book of Longing". I still think he's great! I rang one of my friends from my writing class who likes him too and said quick - listen and look! "Book of Longing" is on my Christmas wish list for sure :) It is lovely to revisit some postings - hugs fellow members :)
 
Kate
I know how you feel when you read a certain poem or words
The person who altered my life was Ella Wheeler Wilcox
I read her poem
One of us two,
and it tore me apart and made me realize Lifes priorities

The Day will dawn when one of us two shall hearken
In Vain to hear a voice that has grown dumb,
And morns will fade; noons pale and shadows darken,
While sad eyes watch for feet that never come,
One of us two must sometimes face existence
Alone with memories that but sharpen pain
And those sweet days shall shine back in the distance
Like dreams of summer dawns, in night of rain
One of us two, with tortured heart half broken
Shall read long treasured letters through salt tears,
Shall kiss with anguished lips each cherished token,
That speaks of these love-crowned, delicious years.
One of us two, shall find all light, all beauty,
All joy on earth, a tale forever done,
Shall know henceforth that life means only duty.
O God! Oh God! have pity on that one


Ellas Husband died before her and she spent the rest of her life trying to get in touch with the dead, she lived a tragic life
But wrote some great stuff which sadly a lot of it has become outdated
Read her autobiography if you can get it
 
That's great, I seldom comment on poetry, I've never considered myself qualified but I don't think you have to be qualified in any way to recognise that sort of quality.
 
Jerry never read a poem in my life till I saw this (The one below)
and I thought, I wish I could write something as great as that. I am still trying and thats the fun part of it
I never understood Shakespeare as a kid, and still don't

SOLITUDE
Laugh and the World laughs with you.
Weep and you weep alone,
For this sad old Earth must borrow its mirth,
But has troubles enough of its own.
Sing and the hills will answer
Sigh, and its lost on the air
The echoes bound to a joyful sound
But shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice and men will seek you
Grieve and they turn on you
They want full measure of all your pleasure
But they do not need your woe
Be glad and your friends are many
Be sad and you lose them all
There are none to decline your nectared wine
But alone you must drink life's gall


Half of Ella Wheeler Wilcox's poem
 
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