Poems and Songs: Cohen

by Leonard Cohen, Robert Faggen (Editor)

A magnificent selection of song lyrics and poems from across the storied career of one of the most daring and affecting poet-songwriters in the world.

In the more than half century since his first book of poems was published, Leonard Cohen has evolved into an international cult figure who transcends genres and generations. This anthology contains a cross section of his five decades of influential work, including such legendary songs as "Suzanne," "Sisters of Mercy," "Bird on the Wire," "Famous Blue Raincoat," and "I'm Your Man" and searingly memorable poems from his many acclaimed poetry collections, including Flowers for Hitler, Beautiful Losers, and Death of a Lady's Man. Encompassing the erotic and the melancholy, the mystical and the sardonic, this volume showcases a writer of dazzling intelligence and live-wire emotional immediacy.

Genres: Poetry, Music, Nonfiction, Canada, Literature, Classics, 20th Century

245 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2011

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

[karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

worst day ever. thanks for all the everything, l.c.

i am so glad that leonard cohen finally got the "everyman's library pocket poets treatment." unless i am screwing up the math, apart from him, the most modern poet to have a book in this series is sylvia plath. and - blarg, sylvia plath, right?

this is a really nice sampling of this poems/songs. it is not complete - many of my personal favorites have been overlooked, but i am not complaining. and obviously, all these poems have been published elsewhere, so if you are like me and already have about 20 leonard cohen collections, this isn't going to be anything new, but i like to have things. don't you?

some standouts:

SLOWLY I MARRIED HER

Slowly I married her
Slowly and bitterly married her love
Married her body.
in boredom and joy
Slowly I came to her
Slow and resentfully came to her bed
Came to her table
in hunger and habit.
came to be fed
Slowly I married her
sanctioned by none
with nobody's blessings
in nobody’s name.
amid general warnings.
amid general scorn
Came to her fragrance.
my nostrils wide
Came to her greed.
with seed for a child
Years in the coming
and years in retreat.
Slowly I married her
Slowly I kneeled
And now we are wounded.
so deep and so well
that no one can hurt us
except Death itself.
And all through Death’s dream
I move with her lips
The dream is a night.
but eternal the kiss
And slowly I come to her
slowly we shed
the clothes of our doubting.
and slowly we wed

and better than hardy's love poem between the titanic and the iceberg is cohen's imagining of the love between joan of arc and the fire:

Now the flames they followed Joan of Arc
as she came riding through the dark;
no moon to keep her armour bright,
no man to get her through this very smoky night.
She said, "I'm tired of the war,
I want the kind of work I had before,
a wedding dress or something white
to wear upon my swollen appetite."
Well, I'm glad to hear you talk this way,
you know I've watched you riding every day
and something in me yearns to win
such a cold and lonesome heroine.
"And who are you?" she sternly spoke
to the one beneath the smoke.
"Why, I'm fire," he replied,
"And I love your solitude, I love your pride."

"Then fire, make your body cold,
I'm going to give you mine to hold,"
saying this she climbed inside
to be his one, to be his only bride.
And deep into his fiery heart
he took the dust of Joan of Arc,
and high above the wedding guests
he hung the ashes of her wedding dress.

It was deep into his fiery heart
he took the dust of Joan of Arc,
and then she clearly understood
if he was fire, oh then she must be wood.
I saw her wince, I saw her cry,
I saw the glory in her eye.
Myself I long for love and light,
but must it come so cruel, and oh so bright?

and a song that has a personal meaning for me, as it always makes me think of this couple i knew, and every time i hear it, i mourn for the end of a relationship i wasn't even a participant in. because i am an empath:

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 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 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 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

this book doesn't have everything, to be sure (where, oh where is master song?? stories of the street??) but it has some of my favorite short pieces:

A KITE IS A VICTIM

A kite is a victim you are sure of.
You love it because it pulls
gentle enough to call you master,
strong enough to call you fool;
because it lives
like a desperate trained falcon
in the high sweet air,
and you can always haul it down
to tame it in your drawer.

A kite is a fish you have already caught
in a pool where no fish come,
so you play him carefully and long,
and hope he won’t give up,
or the wind die down.

A kite is the last poem you’ve written,
so you give it to the wind,
but you don’t let it go
until someone finds you
something else to do.

A kite is a contract of glory
that must be made with the sun,
so make friends with the field
the river and the wind,
then you pray the whole cold night before,
under the travelling cordless moon,
to make you worthy and lyric and pure.

I heard of a man
who says words so beautifully
that if he only speaks their name
women give themselves to him.

If I am dumb beside your body
while silence blossoms like tumors on our lips.
it is because I hear a man climb stairs and clear his throat outside the door.


Love is a fire
It burns everyone
It disfigures everyone
It is the world's excuse for being ugly

but - and here's the real reason i have to be writing this review. my intentions for this evening were to come home and finally start reading some lorca, because i am realizing more and more that to love leonard cohen is to love lorca. in fact, one of my favorite songs, lyrically, is just a variation of a lorca poem. this link lays them out next to each other, if you want to see them hanging out together:

http://www.webheights.net/speakingcoh...

but where is my copy? how did i misplace a thousand-page book? the only explanation is that someone broke in and stole both this and my copy of knockemstiff, also missing in action. so for now i will stick with my cohen, and maybe the thief will return the book when they are finished with it.

but someday, i will read lorca, dammit.

come to my blog!

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah, no, in an already hard week, now made harder with this loss. RIP, Leonard.

Maybe it's as Don McClean wrote about Vincent VanGogh: This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you.

Here's Everybody Knows:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lin-a...

Suzanne, my favorite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX0Cf...

Joan of Arc:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtwUy...

[Maritina Mela · Rating 4 out of 5]

A poetry collection that I gave more than two stars to? I know, I'm just as confused as you.
But yeah, I did enjoy this one, even though, as expected, I didn't like every single poem.
I also found out that listening to movie soundtracks while reading this, made the book even better. Seriously, try some Abel Korzeniowski or Ludovico Einaudi, or someone else, it works!

[Camie · Rating 4 out of 5]

RIP Leonard Cohen....Although I admit to liking his music more than his poetry, I love that this little volume of Everyman's Library Pocket Poets was published in 2011. These little 8X6 books are great introductions to poetry and in this case lyrics, for those of us who don't read much of this genre. I spent the weekend re-reading my favorite lyrics and listening to my favorite Cohen tunes. Besides the originals there are many great covers of his songs. One of my first guitar lessons ( 1970's here) was learning Suzanne which was a big hit for Judy Collins at the time, also love Jennifer Warrens covers of First We Take Manhattan and Joan Of Arc, and Antony's If It Be Your Will ( from I Am A Bird Now.) Is there anyone who doesn't love Cohen's best known song , and possibly the best song ever written, Hallelujah !! Jeff Buckley's version is the classic, but if you get the chance check out Jeff Gutt's completely surprising ( and stunning) X factor audition version (not his music video) of the song on You Tube. I don't yet have Cohen's latest release You Want It Darker ( 2016) but I'm looking forward to checking it out soon. I must have listened to twenty covers of Hallelujah trying to figure out my favorite. If you have one, I'd love to hear who does it !!

[Rikke · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I move toward a love
you have dreamed for me”

This was beautiful. Certainly not perfect, but beautiful. Cohen isn't necessarily the greatest lyrical writer, but he puts feeling into every word, and his poetry is a pleasure to read.

[Nona · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're reading this book without singing the lyrics in your head, we cannot be friends.

One of my biggest regrets in life is not having seen Leonard Cohen live in concert. His music is the one I usually turn to when I need comforting. His voice cuddles me and he's a part of that very small group of songwriters who are also poets. Cohen's songs speak to me in ways not many other songs do. They have a depth rarely found nowadays, originality and multiple roads of interpretation. He had a unique talent of mixing sensuality with real-world, strong, sometimes downright disturbing imagery.

I can't say I loved each and every poem here. He was a man in search of divinity and I'm not anywhere near that world, so his more religious poems didn't speak to me in any way. Here and there there are some duller, maybe, unchallenging, vanilla verses that were merely ok.

But there's a lot of profundity in his poetry and constructions that I love to read, reread, explore and lose myself within. I'm keeping this book close to hand, to open up and read snippets of whenever I feel blue.

[Steven Godin · Rating 5 out of 5]

If only the hummingbird
would sip at your desire
If only the green leaves
could use your longing
If only a woman were looking
over your shoulder
at a map of the Eternal city

It seems that nothing can take you away
from this odd memorial
Nothing that's been made or born
separate you from
the fiction of my absence

All the Messiahs are with me in this
You're not supposed to be here
All the Messiahs agree
You're not supposed to be looking for me

[Belinda Vlasbaard · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,5 stars - English Ebook

Review follows later.

[M Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a long time to work through this compact volume for several reasons. First, I've not had much time to read of late -- just too darn busy with other things. Second, this wasn't a book I was keen to rush through. Cohen's intricate imagery demands concentration and is best enjoyed one, or at most a very few, poems at a time.

But ultimately, my slowness in finishing this book is related to my reluctance to give it five stars. Although Cohen is a brilliant poet and lyricist, perhaps one of the finest of our time, the vast majority of his work comes from too dark a place for me to "love" it. For one thing, I deal with human brokenness on a daily basis in my work. Too much Leonard Cohen after days dealing with people in psychic, spiritual or physical need is simply abusive. And although I nevertheless enjoy well-crafted books, movies and other media that deal with the serious and even painful side of existence, I prefer, for reasons of my own faith and my own sanity, to enjoy such works that have at least a whisper of redemption. Such redemption is rare in Cohen's work but all the more brilliant when it comes.

I am quite sure that I will read these poems again and again in the years to come -- the craft is that moving. But I will not love them, for the most part. The vision is simply too bleak.

[Mack · Rating 5 out of 5]

a legend

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cohen’s poetry and songs have simple rhyming that make each piece actually sound poetic, not just because the words rhyme but because of his word choice. His themes incorporate theology and love, and each poem and song is a solid example of what you do with poetry. All of the noteworthy poems:
Our lady of solitude
Montreal
Death of a Lady’s Man
True love leaves no traces
There is a war
Field commander Cohen
The Faith
Waiting for the Miracle
Light as the breeze
The tower of song
I’m your man
Ain’t no cure for love
Hallelujah
Coming back to you
Dance me to the end of love
I lost my way
Thousand kisses deep
A Street
Chelsea Hotel
The Killers
Avalanche
What is a saint
Suzanne
Fingerprints
Teachers
On hearing a name long unspoken
There are some men
Song to make me still
The cuckold’s song
Prayer for Messiah
As the mist leaves no scar

[Fernanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dei 3* como podia dar 2 ou 5* ... mas no meio está o equilíbrio!

Não é um livro que se leia de "rajada" até porque é um livro de poemas, poemas no original e traduzido.

E um livro de poemas penso eu... é para ser lido muito devagar, até para "entender" o que o poeta eventualmente quer transmitir. Tentar adivinhar o seu estado de espírito quando escreveu/pensou/sentiu determinadas emoções.

Na sua linguagem meio rude, meio ao acaso, trás nos o quotidiano, a rotina, o simples e o complexo numa visão muito própria. :)

Curiosamente gosto de o ouvir, Leonard Cohen tem uma "voz" que se destaca e que prende, as canções tornam-se "doces" ao ouvinte.... os poemas...well.... não são fáceis!

Recomendo a quem de facto gosta de Leonard Cohen!

[John Tessitore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not sure that Leonard Cohen is always, in every poem, a great poet. But he is always, in every poem, interesting, in part because of what he isn't. He isn't a trained, academic poet. He may not be a poet's poet. He's not a shaper of words. And he isn't an American poet of the angst-and-awe school. He's something else entirely...something for which he doesn't get enough credit. He's a unique persona, bardic and earthy at the same time. Searching. Much funnier than his early music might suggest. And he's never cold, which may be the best thing I can say about any writer.

[Gruffudd Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Didn’t get most of it but served its purpose of looking clever on the train

[Marlon Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

idk if its bc i dont read much poetry but i absolutely loved this. one of us cannot be wrong is probs my fav bc i adore the song but the whole thing is just amazing!!

[Saru · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marvellous.

[d.ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ · Rating 4 out of 5]

”Give me crack and anal sex.”
me too Leonard me too

[Johan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, the problem with songs is that most of the time they're written specifically for music. Different stanzas are changed so it will fit the song. The result is that we could get a nice poem that scanned nicely and had a great rhytm, and next we could get a wall of text that I wasn't sure if it was a song or a poem or what?

But I will say this: When Leonards poem hits, he hits hard! And when they miss, they miss hard!
Overall it was a neat collection, but I think a more die-hard fan would get more out of it than I did.

[livvie · Rating 5 out of 5]

we all know how i feel abt leonard cohen

[Max Bergmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here is an excellent compilation of some of the work of Leonard Cohen, whose music has been a great favorite of mine for the last year or so. Some of his songs are included here, which may seem a bit strange now that we live in an age where lyrics are easily accessible on the internet, but I don't mind. His lyrics often seem like they could have begun their lives as poems, so they don't stand out excessively in a collection of poems. My only complaint otherwise is that the poems are sometimes printed strangely, such that they get cut off mid stanza and resume on the next page, but this is very trivial. I still think this was a good introduction to his work, and will be reading more of the individual collections that were drawn from to make this.
The words here are dripping with lust and energy; They are disgusting and beautiful, profane and profound, meaningless and charged the way only words of prophets and saints can be. I found myself rereading these poems many times, and though I didn't quite piece together some of them, the rest were just perfect. Leonard Cohen churns out lines that are heavy with the weight of brilliance yet weak with the humility of a man brought to his knees by the world.

I still think his songs are mostly better than his poems, but that doesn't mean the poems are to be ignored! My favorite would have to be Love is a Fire:

Love is a fire
It burns everyone
It disfigures everyone
It is the world's excuse
for being ugly

What a good excuse it is. This is to me a perfect example of the ultimate conflict in all of his poems and songs: that between the sacred (religious ecstasy, sex, love, revelry) and the empty (vapidity, bureaucracy, needless violence). Ultimately, though Leonard Cohen was intimately familiar with the darker aspects of life, he kept on finding beauty in spite of it, and in so doing inspires me often.

[Mind the Book · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ett fint musikprojekt för december. Lyssnade på ett par sånger eller inläsningar varje kväll.
Men nu: Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering.

[Ben Koops · Rating 5 out of 5]

Een zoete pijn, een lieve foltering. Ironie gaat hand in hand met totale overgave. Het fijne aan zo'n uitgave is dat songteksten en poëzie op een begeven moment door elkaar gaan lopen, waardoor je van sommige stukken niet meer weet wat het nu is. Sowieso ligt dat in het oeuvre van Cohen dicht bij elkaar. Soms is het ook zo raak: ''Love is the world's excuse for being ugly.'' Ook fijn om oude songteksten te herontdekken. Natuurlijk is het voornamelijk voor wie echt geen genoeg kan krijgen van Cohen, en werkt het als een fijn archief wat een doorsnede biedt. Of het nu gebeden zijn of liederen: ''it dont matter how you worship as long as you are down on your knees.''

Cohen is gepokt en gemazeld in het spirituele, de poëzie is mystiek en de mystiek is poëzie. Dit is zichtbaar in nummers als Born in chains: ''But in the grip of Sensual Illusion-A sweet unknowing. Unified the name.'' Dit is bijna Soefi poëzie, ligt dicht tegen Rumi aan. Of in andere nummers: ''Come forth from the cloud of Unknowing.'' Een verwijzing naar een religieuze poëtische tekst uit de Middeleeuwen. Religie is bijna iets altijd wat je opgelegd wordt bij Cohen, net als de opdracht in Going home. Je kunt je er simpelweg niet aan onttrekken.

Het gevecht tussen man en vrouw, en de stille pantomime van religie. Leven is wachten op het mysterie, ''waiting for the miracle''. Heiligen bestaan niet, want alles is gebrokenheid. Maar daar in die gebrokenheid klinkt zijn lied. Prachtig is het gedicht Song for Abraham Klein, het beeld van de ''weary psalmist'' is zo passend voor Cohen. De woorden zijn moe, maar de psalmist zingt uit gewoonte. ''he thought he knew no music-to make the morning right.''Zijn bekentenis is simpel; ''it was never me, it was always you.'' Dat hij nog maar veel van zich mag laat horen in ''the tower of song.'' Ik zou de hele dag Cohen kunnen quoten, maar we kunnen beter het laatste woord aan hem laten.

[Patrick Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first selection of poetry I’ve ever read in totality, or is at least the first I’ve read as an adult. Any given author’s prose is as significant as their themes; I value form and function above most other aspects of a book, though the strength of one’s language is inevitably tied to their development of character and plot. Likewise, I’ve always had great admiration for lyrics and value them nearly equivalently to instrumentation when it comes to my favorite artists. Yet, I still hadn’t sought out poetry. That has begun to change recently, though I can’t fully explain why. I’ve just heard the music of my favorite lyricists and want more, whether that be in Dylan’s nonfiction or, in this instance, Cohen’s poetry. Dylan and Cohen are undoubtedly two of the strongest lyricists of American music (Dylan in particular being the greatest songwriter of any time), so it is natural that their work retain its power as text.

Cohen’s distinctive voice and consistent rhythm allowed me to digest his poems more thoroughly than some others I’ve attempted, and I believe this ease of entry will allow me to gradually expand my breadth. Regarding these specific selections: they’re excellent. Several songs are included, such as “Anthem,” which has been interpolated at least 3 times in the last few years, One of Us Cannot Be Wrong, Diamonds in the Mine, and Fingerprints. Cohen’s strongest work generally centers on intimacy, though there are great exceptions such as “The Killers”. This is an excellent collection for a relative newcomer to poetry such as myself (though I’ve worked bi-weekly open mic poetry nights for nearly 2 years), and I imagine it’s value likely transcends my status and applies to all readers.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful book in every way. It's small, like an early edition of Whitman or Dickinson, with a difficult font, one poem per page, and an attached ribbon placemarker like the Bible. It is to be sipped, not gulped. It will take a while to read it thoroughly.

Themes discovered so far seem to point to a confusion about sexual and religious ecstasy, a need to feel one with the universe, and to find a recipe for getting there.

Anther reason why I avoid poetry is that, having spent precious time deciphering obscure references in order to translate the poet's code, the theme that emerges is banal and could be stated in a few straightforward sentences. If the poet is that interested in keeping his secrets, who am I to try and understand WTF he is trying to say?

Obviously, I have a grudge against poetry which often seems to be chiefly an effort to conceal one's true self behind idiosyncratic associations. However, like many psychologists, I do have a bit of a soft spot for detection and solving puzzles. So if I can get into it and combine poetry with other original sources, it becomes a game and therefore a lot more fun. I also know that poetry can sometimes touch a nerve even if you don't fully comprehend every word.

I have decided, with the help of a Netflix doc about Cohen (called Hallelujah, of course) that the emotions that his songs evoke are worth a little effort. I will be working on this for a while, though. 4+/5 stars

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Fare thee well my nightingale
I lived but to be near you
Though you are singing somewhere still
I can no longer hear you”

I’ve been reading this almost daily over the last three months. Taking my time with it to fully appreciate everything here was a nice sentimental way to consume it but it was a loooong journey. I should add that I had a very pedestrian knowledge of Leonard Cohen and just wanted to read some poetry.

The ones I enjoyed outweighed the ones I didn’t but, reading one a day, I really did consider giving up somewhere in the middle but I think that’s more down to it being a massive collection of work and less of a well curated shorter list of impactful pieces.

The ones that tackled longing I think really did it for me. A few of the religiously inclined ones were okay too. These in particular rocked my world in some way…
- Prayer for Messiah
- When This American Woman
- These Heroics
- The Fly
- As The Mist Leaves No Scar
- Gift
- There Are Some Men
- True Love Leaves No Traces
- Ballad of the Absent Mare
- Coming Back To You
- I’m Your Man
- Here It Is
- The Letters
- Nightingale (where the quote is from)

[Jeremy Johnston · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent collection of Cohen's poem, beautifully bound in a small, handheld edition. His poetry is stark and surprising, prophetic and relentless, cynical and despairing. His poems reveal a man desperately seeking for more. Often Cohen addresses a woman/female caricature that resembles the poetry of Petrarch, especially in the way the Renaissance poet calls out to the silent, idolized, and idealized woman on a pedestal. Cohen's work is also religious but not conventionally so. He loosely and (at times) indifferently synchretizes materialism, Judaism, Catholicism, and New Age beliefs. The most powerful and recurring emotion seems to be erotic love, in which Cohen seems to demand that Eros deliver what it cannot give... Agape, that is, true, Divine Love from the Creator.

[Juniper S · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy Leonard Cohen’s writing. The religious themes carry a lot of weight for me, especially the explicitly Jewish poems. He also writes about love and lust in such a way that stirs the passions of my heart. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection, and I really enjoyed being able to read along to the songs as I listened to them.

[char · Rating 2 out of 5]

really just kind of underwhelming, sorry

[Anna Calleeuw · Rating 5 out of 5]

One word: amazing 😍

[Britt DiBartolo · Rating 5 out of 5]

literally what else is there to say? what a guy! everybody know. “i lost my way” is on my fridge