It's presented with his drawing "Burning Bush" on the Blackening Pages. Use the link under "Latest Updates" on the front page at
http://www.leonardcohenfiles.comJarkko
No Middleman
No Middleman
I have today posted a poem just received from Leonard, "No Middleman".
It's presented with his drawing "Burning Bush" on the Blackening Pages. Use the link under "Latest Updates" on the front page at http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com
Jarkko
It's presented with his drawing "Burning Bush" on the Blackening Pages. Use the link under "Latest Updates" on the front page at
http://www.leonardcohenfiles.comJarkko
Yes indeed.
Please forgive the presumption of my posting my rambly sort of reaction to it--
"I never tried to see your face" Oh but I think you have--tried. Over and over, in the ecstasy of sex, in the exquisite music, a beautiful woman, the limits of the sea. On the mountain. In the dust that is seldom seen. What else but my face do you think you have been seeking?
To see it without middleman. If that is possible. If it is not always already mediated through the face of every man woman and child on earth.
"Nor did I want to know
The details of some lower place
Where I would have to go"
- Not from fear let me come to you.
"But love is strong as gravity
And everyone must fall"
To fall even from the visible places of devotion. Not only from the obvious apple trees of Babylon, but to fall even from Jerusalem. First you have to fall from your holy ground. Into the dirt I go. Only then do I have an outside chance.
It is a midrash, babe. It is why I am hangin' out here.
Yes, thank you Leonard.
And Jarkko, thanks for the work of the site!
-Janem
Please forgive the presumption of my posting my rambly sort of reaction to it--
"I never tried to see your face" Oh but I think you have--tried. Over and over, in the ecstasy of sex, in the exquisite music, a beautiful woman, the limits of the sea. On the mountain. In the dust that is seldom seen. What else but my face do you think you have been seeking?
To see it without middleman. If that is possible. If it is not always already mediated through the face of every man woman and child on earth.
"Nor did I want to know
The details of some lower place
Where I would have to go"
- Not from fear let me come to you.
"But love is strong as gravity
And everyone must fall"
To fall even from the visible places of devotion. Not only from the obvious apple trees of Babylon, but to fall even from Jerusalem. First you have to fall from your holy ground. Into the dirt I go. Only then do I have an outside chance.
It is a midrash, babe. It is why I am hangin' out here.
Yes, thank you Leonard.
And Jarkko, thanks for the work of the site!
-Janem
Incredible contrast.
The elusivity and intrigue of Leonard's poem ~ followed by the blatant vibrancy of his drawing, with its primary colours; complex, female fluidity; and strong, angular, masculine design. The masculine lending both strength and sturdy support with asymetrical simplicity, and intertwined hearts, to the glory above. I can't discern the symbols in the rectangle below. It almost looks like a "wood block signature" stamp [or tilted and broken chairs
]. I keep looking back and forth between the poem and the drawing, the latter so bright that it should surely illuminate all that lies within those words.
More striking contrast between the simplicity of the original fall from the apple tree, and across time, through to the complexities suggested by mere mention of the Western Wall. Addressing the inevitability of love, it sounds like it's time to do away with the middle man. Tomorrow I will consult my Bible regarding the Burning Bush. To say I understand this poem, conjunct the drawing, would be absurd. To say I remain intrigued, and will pursue its meaning, is absolute truth. To say that seeing it here is a breath of fresh, nutrition-filled air is an understatement beyond measure. Thank you, Leonard.
~Elizabeth
This morning, as I listened to NPR and reports of States-side sniping and more terrorist-related bombings across the world, the freedom to interpret poetry from another, personal perspective prevailed and the words of this poem played through my mind politically, driven by my own serious, deep concern with Bush [aka Shrub], burning to perpetrate war. Never having tried to see the faces, or wanting to know the details of the lives, of those below [where bombs are sure to go], and wrapped in his own dogged, self-willed certainty that this is a "must" and where he wills to go alone, with or without the agreement of other, he begs the force of gravity to prevail.
And, surely as love is strong as gravity, and everyone must fall [be it in love, personally, or in defeat, with the Roman Empire only one example], the pattern is made clear, from the first fall of the apple to the inevitability of the Western Wall. Leonard's drawing depicts the Burning Bush/burning bush already wildly afire in skewed posture. There's still life [burning bush now figurative for the U.S.] in the green leaves and the trunk, but the Bush/bush is clearly burning. Not my preferred interpretation, yet what a difference a day can make.
The elusivity and intrigue of Leonard's poem ~ followed by the blatant vibrancy of his drawing, with its primary colours; complex, female fluidity; and strong, angular, masculine design. The masculine lending both strength and sturdy support with asymetrical simplicity, and intertwined hearts, to the glory above. I can't discern the symbols in the rectangle below. It almost looks like a "wood block signature" stamp [or tilted and broken chairs
]. I keep looking back and forth between the poem and the drawing, the latter so bright that it should surely illuminate all that lies within those words.More striking contrast between the simplicity of the original fall from the apple tree, and across time, through to the complexities suggested by mere mention of the Western Wall. Addressing the inevitability of love, it sounds like it's time to do away with the middle man. Tomorrow I will consult my Bible regarding the Burning Bush. To say I understand this poem, conjunct the drawing, would be absurd. To say I remain intrigued, and will pursue its meaning, is absolute truth. To say that seeing it here is a breath of fresh, nutrition-filled air is an understatement beyond measure. Thank you, Leonard.
~Elizabeth
This morning, as I listened to NPR and reports of States-side sniping and more terrorist-related bombings across the world, the freedom to interpret poetry from another, personal perspective prevailed and the words of this poem played through my mind politically, driven by my own serious, deep concern with Bush [aka Shrub], burning to perpetrate war. Never having tried to see the faces, or wanting to know the details of the lives, of those below [where bombs are sure to go], and wrapped in his own dogged, self-willed certainty that this is a "must" and where he wills to go alone, with or without the agreement of other, he begs the force of gravity to prevail.
And, surely as love is strong as gravity, and everyone must fall [be it in love, personally, or in defeat, with the Roman Empire only one example], the pattern is made clear, from the first fall of the apple to the inevitability of the Western Wall. Leonard's drawing depicts the Burning Bush/burning bush already wildly afire in skewed posture. There's still life [burning bush now figurative for the U.S.] in the green leaves and the trunk, but the Bush/bush is clearly burning. Not my preferred interpretation, yet what a difference a day can make.
Last edited by lizzytysh on Thu Oct 17, 2002 4:03 pm, edited 2 times in total.
The Emporers New Clothes (again).
I must be reading a different poem, and looking at a different painting. The last time i saw art of such depth, power, and meaning was at my local kindergarten.
p.
p.
Yes, you may have seen it at a kindergarten, Partisan. Children at age 4 or 5, if they have not had it beaten out of them by too-controlling parents or other sad spirit-deadening circumstances, have access to spirit and live in it unaware that there is any other way to live. It comes through their spontaneous words and paintings, when they let themselves float, out of the logical world of abc 123 that they are being pushed into by their teachers. You may have noted this if you have had the opportunity to carefully tend the soul of a young one entrusted to you. Precisely at kindergarten, because of our insistance that they leave this non-being and enter ordinary being, is when they start to lose access to it. Then it takes the rest of one's life to gain a pathway back, and here is Leonard doing that at the other end, in deceptively simple words and deceptively primitive painting.
-Janem
-Janem
-
George.Wright
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Exactly, Janem. Harry Chapin has a simple, wonderful song depicting this very, stunting, spirit-killing process, via the educational system's impact at that very tender age. It's called Roses Are Red. Some of Leonard's work is short and simple, yet it says enormous things. I'm not here to tell you what those things are, only willing to try to figure them out for myself. I only know that his words and his art are not by chance, yet like the child in kindergarten are by inspiration and like the seasoned adult, by design.
Can some kind person tell me how I can get rid of the left hand scroll screen on the main pages. I got into the link and cannot see the contents clearly as the left-hand scroll screen stays there.
As I cannot draw a straight line I am in awe of anyone who can draw anything that resembles anything. Having looked at the drawings and the poems on this link I thank Leonard for letting us look at the produce of his thoughts and feelings. If he ever feels the need to part with any of his works..................... look no further
As I cannot draw a straight line I am in awe of anyone who can draw anything that resembles anything. Having looked at the drawings and the poems on this link I thank Leonard for letting us look at the produce of his thoughts and feelings. If he ever feels the need to part with any of his works..................... look no further
Let's see...
Janem thinks painting as if one were in one's second childhood is just dandy.
Partisan refuses to pull his punches. (Bravo, partisan)
George drones on about "conditioned minds". Again.
Paula cannot draw a straight line...(and neither apparently can Leonard).
And last, but certainly not least, Lizzytysh combines "fresh, nutrition-filled air" with a scathing (sort of) attack on George Bush.
Well, I've certainly enjoyed reading this thread!
eeey
Janem thinks painting as if one were in one's second childhood is just dandy.
Partisan refuses to pull his punches. (Bravo, partisan)
George drones on about "conditioned minds". Again.
Paula cannot draw a straight line...(and neither apparently can Leonard).
And last, but certainly not least, Lizzytysh combines "fresh, nutrition-filled air" with a scathing (sort of) attack on George Bush.
Well, I've certainly enjoyed reading this thread!
eeey
It's the beauty of the freedom of interpretation, eeey. See the Waking Life site and what actually constitutes reality [make that "reality"].
Noticing that you have editorial comments galore on all who contributed, yet no risk-taking to offer your own. What do you think of the poem and drawing? What is your interpretation of either or both? Do you feel they're connected or simply brought here in tandem ~ a poem for the word people; a drawing for the visually-oriented; or one of each for those who are both.
I read the Burning Bush story in the Bible last night, and couldn't [at least in the brief time I had to devote to it] find a correlation between the two. The drawing could merely be Leonard's depiction of the Burning Bush, no more, no less. Seems pretty unlikely to me, but hey....
Where's Lightning.....she's generally able to bring this kind of thing together, if there's a way to do it. I'll read it some more and try again. Have you checked out that aspect? Are you interested?
Noticing that you have editorial comments galore on all who contributed, yet no risk-taking to offer your own. What do you think of the poem and drawing? What is your interpretation of either or both? Do you feel they're connected or simply brought here in tandem ~ a poem for the word people; a drawing for the visually-oriented; or one of each for those who are both.
I read the Burning Bush story in the Bible last night, and couldn't [at least in the brief time I had to devote to it] find a correlation between the two. The drawing could merely be Leonard's depiction of the Burning Bush, no more, no less. Seems pretty unlikely to me, but hey....
Where's Lightning.....she's generally able to bring this kind of thing together, if there's a way to do it. I'll read it some more and try again. Have you checked out that aspect? Are you interested?
I must admit the first free, uninhibited thought that went through my mind on seeing the poem and the 'art' was 'The Emperor's New Clothes' (independent of partisan's subject heading), but perhaps illumination will dawn on another day.
Cheers
Cheers
Last edited by Kush on Fri Oct 18, 2002 9:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.