The Flame: The Lucky Night!!!!!
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2019 10:02 am
Ambiguity
Ambiguity, it seems, is a very alluring way to write; alluring for both reader and writer. How can we express the ineffable? How can we each say, in our own way, what can’t be said? And how can the reader grasp what can’t quite be touched?
Well, we wallow in and around and flow in the "undertow"…
Chewing on Dark chocolate while sipping hot, ground black coffee with cream has its own aromas and scents some meaning to a life; this is what the poetry of Leonard Cohen does for me. So read on with caution as I stir the cup of crazy fragrance, all around.
In the book The Flame, on page 18 we have the poem “The Lucky Night!!!!!”.
We don’t so much have an original Leonard Cohen poem as we have an original translation and lovely interpretation of Cruz’ “Dark Night” (of the Soul). In this poem Leonard identifies with Cruz’s way of understanding Divinity and becomes, with the interaction of his Soul, “G~d”; or what Cruz calls “god by participation”…where the individual becomes conscious of one’s own divine soul and that individual soul unifies with the Divinity's Soul, and then both soul and Soul experience co-existent Union and this "unified heart" equates to a 1st “position” of ( Leonard’s “various positions”) the transcendent mystic…man becomes god and G~d becomes man in a spiritual Holy Communion.
Leonard does not seem comfortable with labels like “mystic” but he is happy to use the poetry of the Spanish Mystics to express his transcendent leanings and “listing”... like a sailor empowered by the breath of his g~d; hence, “The Lucky Night!!!!!” of an immortal moment outside of time; the eternal I/We/Am.
Like Jesus’ last thoughts on the Cross, Leonard Cohen’s poetry employs 3 defining attitudes or, “various positions”:
• Doubt…….. (“Why hast Thou forsaken me?”)
• Absolute faith…….. (“Into thy hands I commend my Spirit”)
• Indifference…….. (“It is finished”)
And one way or another these 3 attitudes oscillating-ly draw him in the direction of his g~d and somewhere in the mix he discovers his feminine soul; and it is she, soul, who sets out and consummates their existential Quest (Leonard and soul) to and with Divinity/G~d…and like Solomon and San Juan de la Cruz, Leonard Cohen uses the symbol of a dark and swarthy female beauty to symbolise that soul of his, who is:
“of all and all, the only One”, in the poem below;
…the only one whom he ever truly sought and ever truly loved; and the only one/ One he ever-so-deeply wanted to love.
Much of his poetry and this book, “The Flame”, is almost exclusively about this soulful endeavour and yet he experiences this endeavour from the “various positions” of doubt, faith, indifference and soulful-transcendence mentioned above.
My job now, as I see it, is to explain myself! or forever hold my silly tongue
The proof is in the pudding as they say and the keys to the Kingdom of Leonard are at hand. In the book, The Flame,the symbols abound, the allusions are prolific and the Cohen Coda is eager to be found. Leonard has laid it out beautifully as if to smile and say;
“seek and you shall find. Let the blind see, let the lame walk, let the waters change to Wine…and blessed are the peace-makers.”
So here it is; Leonard Cohen's enlightened version of Cruz' poem, Dark Night of the Soul. And what a beautiful and informative interpretation it is...
The Lucky Night!!!!!
Let's say that on that lucky night
I found my house in order
and I could slip away unseen
tho' burning with desire
Escaping down a secret stair
I cross into the forest
the night is dark but I am safe—
my house at last in order
But luck or not, I do it right
and no one sees me leaving
hidden, blind and secret night—
my heart the only beacon
But O that beacon lights my way
more surely than the sun,
and She is waiting for me there—
of all and all, the only One
And then the night commands me
to enter in Her side
and be as Adam is to Eve
before they need divide
So I can show Her what's been kept
for Her and Her alone—
a secret place that Love had left
before the world was born
Her nipples underneath My hand
Her fingers in My hair—
a forest crying from the dead
and fragrance everywhere
And from the wall a grazing wind
weightless and serene
wounds Me as I part Her lips
and wounds Us in between
And fastened here, surrendered to
My Lover and My Lover,
We spread and drown as lilies do—
forever and forever
After reading this poem, if you have the book "The Flame" at hand, look to the right (page 19) for here we have his sketch of his beautiful swarthy soul; it is this sketch, I suggest, which represents artistically his muse, his feminine aspect, his soul. And it is She who puts Leonard in touch with their g~d.
She is a bit of a two-timer, this Lady Midnight, in that she loves and spends time with both Leonard and Leonard's G~d.
When She is with Leonard, he is happy.
When she is off with g~d, Leonard is lost in some Dark Night.
And when She takes Leonard back to their G~d, Leonard is... found...in The Lucky Night of Union, as he says in the final verse above,
"And fastened here, surrendered to
My Lover and My Lover,
We spread and drown as lilies do—
forever and forever"
...and off they sail in transcendence.
"Suzanne takes you down to her place by the River
...and all men will be sailors then
until the sea shall free them..."
(an early song, "Suzanne", by Leonard Cohen)
Or, as the various scriptures put it, "That Thou Art, I am Who Am,"
(I am the existential-immortal-eternal-I AM.........and so are you, Leonard!)
This instruction from the Divine comes via his Lady Midnight Soul, his muse,and enters into his consciousness thanks to her good work. Indeed it must have been a "Lucky Night".
And Leonard has been poetically musing and singing variations of this theme for a long, long time as he suggests in this book, The Flame.
I'll continue shortly, but in the meantime buy the book if you haven't already as it is a worthwhile read and as the saying goes, the "pictures paint a thousand words"
This is fun . All thanks to Leonard Cohen for setting the task and lifting that "Flame" in the darkness.
...and the darker, apparently the better...
You want it darker!?
Mat James (MatbellybuttonggazerJ)
Ambiguity, it seems, is a very alluring way to write; alluring for both reader and writer. How can we express the ineffable? How can we each say, in our own way, what can’t be said? And how can the reader grasp what can’t quite be touched?
Well, we wallow in and around and flow in the "undertow"…
Chewing on Dark chocolate while sipping hot, ground black coffee with cream has its own aromas and scents some meaning to a life; this is what the poetry of Leonard Cohen does for me. So read on with caution as I stir the cup of crazy fragrance, all around.
In the book The Flame, on page 18 we have the poem “The Lucky Night!!!!!”.
We don’t so much have an original Leonard Cohen poem as we have an original translation and lovely interpretation of Cruz’ “Dark Night” (of the Soul). In this poem Leonard identifies with Cruz’s way of understanding Divinity and becomes, with the interaction of his Soul, “G~d”; or what Cruz calls “god by participation”…where the individual becomes conscious of one’s own divine soul and that individual soul unifies with the Divinity's Soul, and then both soul and Soul experience co-existent Union and this "unified heart" equates to a 1st “position” of ( Leonard’s “various positions”) the transcendent mystic…man becomes god and G~d becomes man in a spiritual Holy Communion.
Leonard does not seem comfortable with labels like “mystic” but he is happy to use the poetry of the Spanish Mystics to express his transcendent leanings and “listing”... like a sailor empowered by the breath of his g~d; hence, “The Lucky Night!!!!!” of an immortal moment outside of time; the eternal I/We/Am.
Like Jesus’ last thoughts on the Cross, Leonard Cohen’s poetry employs 3 defining attitudes or, “various positions”:
• Doubt…….. (“Why hast Thou forsaken me?”)
• Absolute faith…….. (“Into thy hands I commend my Spirit”)
• Indifference…….. (“It is finished”)
And one way or another these 3 attitudes oscillating-ly draw him in the direction of his g~d and somewhere in the mix he discovers his feminine soul; and it is she, soul, who sets out and consummates their existential Quest (Leonard and soul) to and with Divinity/G~d…and like Solomon and San Juan de la Cruz, Leonard Cohen uses the symbol of a dark and swarthy female beauty to symbolise that soul of his, who is:
“of all and all, the only One”, in the poem below;
…the only one whom he ever truly sought and ever truly loved; and the only one/ One he ever-so-deeply wanted to love.
Much of his poetry and this book, “The Flame”, is almost exclusively about this soulful endeavour and yet he experiences this endeavour from the “various positions” of doubt, faith, indifference and soulful-transcendence mentioned above.
My job now, as I see it, is to explain myself! or forever hold my silly tongue
The proof is in the pudding as they say and the keys to the Kingdom of Leonard are at hand. In the book, The Flame,the symbols abound, the allusions are prolific and the Cohen Coda is eager to be found. Leonard has laid it out beautifully as if to smile and say;
“seek and you shall find. Let the blind see, let the lame walk, let the waters change to Wine…and blessed are the peace-makers.”
So here it is; Leonard Cohen's enlightened version of Cruz' poem, Dark Night of the Soul. And what a beautiful and informative interpretation it is...
The Lucky Night!!!!!
Let's say that on that lucky night
I found my house in order
and I could slip away unseen
tho' burning with desire
Escaping down a secret stair
I cross into the forest
the night is dark but I am safe—
my house at last in order
But luck or not, I do it right
and no one sees me leaving
hidden, blind and secret night—
my heart the only beacon
But O that beacon lights my way
more surely than the sun,
and She is waiting for me there—
of all and all, the only One
And then the night commands me
to enter in Her side
and be as Adam is to Eve
before they need divide
So I can show Her what's been kept
for Her and Her alone—
a secret place that Love had left
before the world was born
Her nipples underneath My hand
Her fingers in My hair—
a forest crying from the dead
and fragrance everywhere
And from the wall a grazing wind
weightless and serene
wounds Me as I part Her lips
and wounds Us in between
And fastened here, surrendered to
My Lover and My Lover,
We spread and drown as lilies do—
forever and forever
After reading this poem, if you have the book "The Flame" at hand, look to the right (page 19) for here we have his sketch of his beautiful swarthy soul; it is this sketch, I suggest, which represents artistically his muse, his feminine aspect, his soul. And it is She who puts Leonard in touch with their g~d.
She is a bit of a two-timer, this Lady Midnight, in that she loves and spends time with both Leonard and Leonard's G~d.
When She is with Leonard, he is happy.
When she is off with g~d, Leonard is lost in some Dark Night.
And when She takes Leonard back to their G~d, Leonard is... found...in The Lucky Night of Union, as he says in the final verse above,
"And fastened here, surrendered to
My Lover and My Lover,
We spread and drown as lilies do—
forever and forever"
...and off they sail in transcendence.
"Suzanne takes you down to her place by the River
...and all men will be sailors then
until the sea shall free them..."
(an early song, "Suzanne", by Leonard Cohen)
Or, as the various scriptures put it, "That Thou Art, I am Who Am,"
(I am the existential-immortal-eternal-I AM.........and so are you, Leonard!)
This instruction from the Divine comes via his Lady Midnight Soul, his muse,and enters into his consciousness thanks to her good work. Indeed it must have been a "Lucky Night".
And Leonard has been poetically musing and singing variations of this theme for a long, long time as he suggests in this book, The Flame.
I'll continue shortly, but in the meantime buy the book if you haven't already as it is a worthwhile read and as the saying goes, the "pictures paint a thousand words"
This is fun . All thanks to Leonard Cohen for setting the task and lifting that "Flame" in the darkness.
...and the darker, apparently the better...
You want it darker!?
Mat James (MatbellybuttonggazerJ)