God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot

by Leonard Cohen

An illustrated mantra style poem taken from the novel, BEAUTIFUL USERS, by the Canadian singer and songwriter, Leonard Cohen.

Genres: Poetry, Music, Art

64 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2000

About the author

Leonard Norman Cohen was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963.

Cohen's earliest songs (many of which appeared on the 1968 album Songs of Leonard Cohen) were rooted in European folk music melodies and instrumentation, sung in a high baritone. The 1970s were a musically restless period in which his influences broadened to encompass pop, cabaret, and world music. Since the 1980s he has typically sung in lower registers (bass baritone, sometimes bass), with accompaniment from electronic synthesizers and female backing singers.

His work often explores the themes of religion, isolation, sexuality, and complex interpersonal relationships.

Cohen's songs and poetry have influenced many other singer-songwriters, and more than a thousand renditions of his work have been recorded. He has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour. Cohen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, 2008 for his status among the "highest and most influential echelon of songwriters".

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this at a used bookstore for 2$ and wasn't quite sure what to expect. I'm pretty disappointed. God is Alive, Magic is Afoot is one of my favorite passages from Beautiful Losers and one hell of an amazing song by Buffy St-Marie, so, to watch it get mutilated in this new age full art digital hall-mart disaster of a book, has honestly, made me very sad. This book's only redeeming factor is on one of the final pages where the full God is alive passage is printed on a nice blank piece of paper. The way it was probably meant to be. Maybe I'm just to young, but I find this whole take on Cohen's work revolting.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intensely beautiful book of a song made famous (to me) more for it's Buffy Saint-Marie version than the Leonard Cohen version, which was a long paragraph in his novel Beautiful Losers. I finally saw that magic is "afoot" and not "a foot" (ala Monty Python opening credits.) Even though I am now an atheist, I still think this is a lovely little book. The artwork is wonderfully balanced with the hypnotic words.

[bina · Rating 5 out of 5]

{Though his shrouds were hoisted the naked God did live. This I mean to whisper to my mind. This I mean to laugh within my mind. This I mean my mind to serve till service is but Magic moving through the world, and mind itself is Magic coursing through the flesh, and flesh itself is Magic dancing on a clock, and time itself is the Magic Length of God.}

i just really deeply love his writing voice. the images in this book are also so beautiful as a companion to this excerpt.

[kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book in a used bookstore and had never heard of it - it is an excerpt from Beautiful Losers (which I have not read yet) and illustrated.

The words are quite different from most Cohen poems I already have in one book or another. The poem is not tinged with lust or tarnished with earthly thoughts. it is cohen the rabbi's son balancing something. The artwork is quirky and lovely. almost a cohen children's story. that's okay with me.

It was a great surprise discovery and a little gem in my collection.

[Gabrielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is gorgeously illustrated...I only wish all the illustrations were traditional. I also wish my partner had been the one to illustrate it. As does he. Anyway, there are a lot of truths in this excerpt from Cohen's Beautiful Losers. Anyone who thinks Cohen is a depressive who writes books, poems, songs and prose to "cut your wrists to" should read this.

[Dottie · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I 'm still pondering this -- I know that there is something about the repetition of the text and the message of that title which offers comfort or hope -- the rhythm? or the words? No matter -- there's a hypnotic appeal here.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read periodically since picking it up for a friend when she converted to Catholicism when we were in grad school, but I never managed to let it go. Beautifully dreamed paintings add to the wonder of Cohen's words celebrating magic and God and God magic.

[Hadi · Rating 1 out of 5]

My love 12

[Mike Essig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very difficult to read, but in places astonishingly beautiful. Not for the faint of heart.

[Janine]

definitely my favourite cohen poem so far but this edition isn’t any good