How were you first introduced to the words of Leonard Cohen?

[Cate]

Hello, I’ve been enjoying this forum for the last month but I’m a little shy so it took me a while to post something myself.

I’m wondering how people were first introduced to the words of Leonard Cohen.

For me it was grade 10 English class. We were briefly studying Canadian poets, which for me was mildly interesting at best. I wish I could remember which poem it was, but I can’t. I do know that it moved me enough to travel to our high school library and locate the Canadian poet shelf.
All books were crisp and clean and no spine was broken. I found two Cohen books, The Spice box of the earth and Flowers for Hitler. I opened the first and read You have the Lovers. I felt as if I had fallen into the poem, into the words, almost as if I was standing inside a Salvidor Dali painting. I was hooked and still am. By the end of High school these books were well worn and creased in many places as all well loved books should be.


Leonard Cohen - You Have The Lovers
You Have the Lovers

You have the lovers,
they are nameless, their histories only for each other,
and you have the room, the bed, and the windows.
Pretend it is a ritual.
Unfurl the bed, bury the lovers, blacken the windows,
let them live in that house for a generation or two.
No one dares disturb them.
Visitors in the corridor tip-toe past the long closed door,
they listen for sounds, for a moan, for a song:
nothing is heard, not even breathing.
You know they are not dead,
you can feel the presence of their intense love.
Your children grow up, they leave you,
they have become soldiers and riders.
Your mate dies after a life of service.
Who knows you? Who remembers you?
But in your house a ritual is in progress:
It is not finished: it needs more people.
One day the door is opened to the lover's chamber.
The room has become a dense garden,
full of colours, smells, sounds you have never known.
The bed is smooth as a wafer of sunlight,
in the midst of the garden it stands alone.
In the bed the lovers, slowly and deliberately and silently,
perform the act of love.
Their eyes are closed,
as tightly as if heavy coins of flesh lay on them.
Their lips are bruised with new and old bruises.
Her hair and his beard are hopelessly tangled.
When he puts his mouth against her shoulder
she is uncertain whether her shoulder
has given or received the kiss.
All her flesh is like a mouth.
He carries his fingers along her waist
and feels his own waist caressed.
She holds him closer and his own arms tighten around her.
She kisses the hand beside her mouth.
It is his hand or her hand, it hardly matters,
there are so many more kisses.
You stand beside the bed, weeping with happiness,
you carefully peel away the sheets
from the slow-moving bodies.
Your eyes filled with tears, you barely make out the lovers,
As you undress you sing out, and your voice is magnificent
because now you believe it is the first human voice
heard in that room.
The garments you let fall grow into vines.
You climb into bed and recover the flesh.
You close your eyes and allow them to be sewn shut.
You create an embrace and fall into it.
There is only one moment of pain or doubt
as you wonder how many multitudes are lying beside your body,
but a mouth kisses and a hand soothes the moment away.


http://www.lyricskeeper.com/leonard_coh ... lyrics.htm

[lizzytysh]

What a red-letter day for new posters, Cate . Thank you for sharing this astonishingly exquisite poem of Leonard's. Oh, yes, I will be printing it to share with several people. So unbelievably dense with its richness. What a marvelous introduction you had to his work. How could you not fall in love with it? I'm glad you've finally ventured forth, and thank you for bringing Leonard's poem along with you.

Welcome .


~ Lizzy

[lizzytysh]

Hi Cate ~

I'll answer your question tomorrow when I have more time. I've just gotten home and have a ton of things to do before bed. It's already after 10 PM and I haven't started them.

By the way, Cate... the reason that you're not getting more responses to your question may be that your/this question gets asked periodically here, in various ways, sections, and threads. So, someone looking at it may say, "I've already answered that" and it's true. Sometimes, someone will pull another thread forward or refer you to it, and other times they won't. I've not answered some of the more recent inquiries on it because I've thought, "Ah! I've already answered that," but it's been awhile, so I'll answer it here again, for you. Later today [now]. If no one else does, though, don't take it personally .

How long have you been out of high school, Cate? I printed your posting and the poem and showed both to my supervisor, yesterday. She really liked the poem and and your posting and asked me how old you are now. Of course, I had no idea on that.


~ Lizzy

[Cate]

Hi Lizzy,

I'm looking forward to it. Thank you for your welcome.

Cate

[Yankovic]

I was born in Ottawa in 1978. My parents, grandparents, uncles and I moved to Fort Lauderdale in 1981. I started watching MTV when it first came out in 1981. I was only three years old. How does a three-year-old start watching MTV you ask? Well, when you're living with an uncle who happens to be a teenager, it's very easy. I got a daily dose of Chicago, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna and Weird Al Yankovic music videos. I became obsessed! My parents and I moved back to Ottawa in 1986 to live by ourselves. I was eight years old and nostalgic already! There was no MTV in Canada. I started watching MUCH MUSIC on my own. In 1988, when I was 10 years old, I was introduced to Leonard Cohen. The music video for First We Take Manhatten was in heavy rotation. I thought the song was the funniest thing since Weird Al's "Living With A Hernia." I guess it was because I didn't know what the song was about, or what Manhatten had to do with Berlin. The way Leonard said the following would make me laugh hysterically:

They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom

I don't like you fashion business mistaaa
I don't like these drugs that keep ya thin
I don't like what happened to my sistaaa
First We Take Manhatten, then we take Berlin

The monkey and the plywood violin

Remember me, I brought your groceries in

He sounded so sinister when he laughed that little laugh. His voice reminded me of Vincent Price and his role in Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Then, I never heard anything about him again for the next 5 years. I didn't even have his name memorized in my head yet.

My parents and I moved back to Fort Lauderdale in 1991. Then, in 1992 or 1993, I was watching the Oscars pre-show. Rebecca De Mornay, who I was familiar with from the 1985 music video for Starship's Sara and the 1992 movie The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, was walking in on the red carpet with this familiar looking person. I couldn't remember his name but I knew exactly who it was. Then, in 1993 VH1 had a program called WHAT'S NEW ON VH1. Every Saturday morning they would play the music video for Leonard Cohen's Closing Time. I started laughing again. After I graduated from 8th grade in 1993 I went out and bought I'm Your Man and The Future. After I graduated from high school in 1997, I bought all of his albums.

So, First We Take Manhatten and Closing Time were my introductions to Leonard Cohen.

[Cate]

Hi Yankovic

Wow - 10 - so young. I can defiantly see how that video would be funny to you. He must have made quite the impression though to remember him 5 years later!

How long have you been out of high school, Cate? I printed your posting and the poem and showed both to my supervisor, yesterday. She really liked the poem and and your posting and asked me how old you are now. Of course, I had no idea on that.

Hi Lizzy,

I’ve actually been out of high school for quite some time; I’ve just had my 37th birthday. Currently I’m going through a period of nostalgia which I’ve heard is not uncommon for my age. I remember the excitement that I had when first discovering this artist – which going up in a small town was quite the discovery. I had a lovely friend who, although she didn’t quite get it, helped me in my search.

We made an interesting discovery in her father’s record collection. Ah ha – he sang as well – interesting. (I have to admit I was slightly resentful that her Father, who was anything but cool, had preceded me in this discovery)

When I was 17, I obtained a copy of Beautiful Losers – Ah ha – he wrote novels as well – interesting – confusing - but defiantly interesting. (I waited a few more years before attempting Favorite Games – after B.L. the title frightened me a little.)

In my younger years I consumed his words, as well as others, with a frenzy. My appetite was enormous. Time demands increased from school, work and relationships, later from a grown up job, husband and family … something got lost and hadn’t even noticed. I still read novels, at a slower pace, still listened to music, while in the car, and still read poetry, when I couldn’t sleep. I hadn’t picked up a pen for a useful purpose, by useful I mean to write to myself, in years. YEARS.

For my birthday this year my husband asked me what I wanted, “You know what I don’t have yet, a copy of Leonard Cohen’s Book of Longing.. I wanted to get it last year… I forgot”

I read the book in a night. BOOM, something clicked, I remembered what I had forgotten. I can’t exactly say in words what I had forgotten it’s more of a feeling; I don’t know maybe you’ve had the same sensation. Anyways, I've reread all of my Cohen material, I've especially enjoyed the novels as my perspective has changed over the years.

Anyways, I realize that I have begun to babble and I realize that this is a horribly long answer to “ how old am I?” I’m going to blame it on staying up much to late at night.

Have a good night

Cate

[John Etherington]

Greetings Cate,

It was a quick succession of events for me. At Christmas 1968, I bought the "Rock Machine Turns You On" compilation, and heard "Sisters of Mercy". Early in 1969, I bought "Rock Machine I Love You" which included "Hey That's No Way to Say Goodbye". That lead to me to buying "Songs From a Room" when it was released, and soon after"Songs From a Room". Around this time (Spring '69) I saw that "Selected Poems" had been published, and rapidly bought that, too (I believe in Foyles bookshop). Thus, the first poem that I must have read was "For Wilf and His House" which I believe is the first in that collection.

All good things, John E

[lizzytysh]

Hi Cate ~

(I waited a few more years before attempting Favorite Games – after B.L. the title frightened me a little.)

Haha. I can see what you mean, though that had never occurred to me .

Thanks for your lovely, long explanation. I haven't forgotten you, but I'm on a couple missions here at work, and they're taking up a lot of time. I'll definitely be answering you. Yes, I do know the sensation you mean. I also find it interesting that with Glass's production and his choice of Leonard's poems to use in it, that we have one older man [a genius] selecting from the work of another older man [a genius]. I feel that this fact should not be overlooked by younger people making judgements about it all. "Walk a mile in my shoes... " comes to mind.


~ Lizzy

[Yankovic]

Hi Yankovic

defiantly

Cate

Did you mean to write, "definitely"?

[Cate]

Hi Yankovic,

Yes, I definitely meant definitely, not defiantly. Spelling mistake I use spell check, but if you don't pay attention you end up with the wrong word.

[lizzytysh]

Hi Cate ~

I knew you meant "definitely," too, just by the context... however, I was enjoying the thought of you finding something "defiantly interesting," as Leonard's books could so easily be considered just that; and how you could "defiantly see" a video being funny to a 10-year-old. It all somehow reminded me of Katherine Hepburn, who could have been considered "defiantly Kate." Now that I have no choice, I'll just quietly return to "definitely."


~ Lizzy

[lizzytysh]

Hi Cate ~

Okay, here's the story I promised, albeit not much of one. Its primary significance lies in its personal meaning for me. My former husband, my lifelong love, is the one who introduced me to Leonard's music. After we were already pretty much separated, I was down where he was staying at his brother's and he said, "You've got to listen to this." I stretched out on the floor to focus, and the first I heard was... "Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river . . . " Our marriage still ended, but there were a number of reconciliation attempts that became filled with his playing the guitar and us singing Leonard's songs alone and together. The feeling of it all was indescribably powerful and is inexoraby, forever intertwined. My associations are intensely visceral. In my heart and being, very akin to the visuals and viscerals of "You Have The Lovers."


~ Lizzy

[tomsakic]

Long time ago I told the story how I was listening to Nick Cave and Tom Waits, and somebody told me that "Leonard Cohen is the father of them all", and then I heard the fake Leonard Cohen in the show which run on Croatian TV, titled Canadian Air Farce. I don't recall did I wrote this in this thread or some else's on this topic, but here it s - the clip I talked about, I bumped into it on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-EoWfI7 ... re=related

PS:

This is actually one of the two sketches that the Farceurs wish they didn't do. The other was one that made fun of singer Rita MacNeil and her mass.

There was also enormously fun parody of Bob Dylan (whose style of live act I did know from TV, as he's more often aired than Leonard).

[Mark A. Murphy]

Hi Cate,

I remember listening to Leonard's words covered by other people when i was growing up. My mum or dad had an EP of Bridget St John with her wonderful version of Suzanne on it. It took me many many years to find Bridget's version again after I sold the EP when I was 15 so I could by The Soft Parade by The Doors! I think I seriously sought out Leonard's music and writings after I watched The South Bank Show special on him in 1988. I read everything I could, bought every album, loved his words, his music. I thought he was so cool. He very quickly became one of my literary heroes. Then I fell in love with a beautiful girl who was already in love with Leonard's poetry and music. We carried Leonard with us through our happy times and our times of pain. The very first Valentine's card I got from her had the lines of a LC poem in it. Something to do with 'thinking about you/ coming into the room/ I made a pass at myself.' Leonard has been with me for the past 20 years. I still listen to him every day and read him every day. I couldn't sleep last night, so I listened to The Master Poems on Cd over and over imagining myself on the scene in downtown Montreal with all the bohemians in the late 50's, early 60's. I want so much to be a part of it, but then I re-run the B&W film footage of Leonard in my mind from the Ladies And Gentleman, Mr Leonard Cohen DVD and find comfort in seeing Leonard as a young man jumping out of bed in his white underwear in what surely must have been a staged awakening by the CBC director! I imagine myself as a young man sending Leonard's poems to girls whom I had taken a liking to. 20 years on, and I am still sending the same poems to girls I have taken a liking to! I'm so happy that you have found LC again and re-visited the sites of your former selves.

One last aside, which you may or may not find interesting, I have only ever used the poems of three poets to court the attention of women: ee cummings, Leonard Cohen and Brian Patten. Leonard always comes out on top. I let an erotic dancer stay with me in my apartment a few years ago for 9 months. She would sometimes say to me as she was readying herself for work in the nightclub, 'I want a man to treat me the way Leonard Cohen treats a woman!' I don't know what privelidged knowledge she had about Leonard's treatment of women or whether she just thought he was the 'most romantic guy ever' because of his poems and music, but I think she knew a thing or two about men. All good things to you, Cate.

[lizzytysh]

Great anecdotal endorsement of Leonard, Mark.


~ Lizzy