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ALL of the above, always always. So, just adding this to the mix.

I freeze with fear, but I'm there for you.

lizzytysh wrote:ALL of the above, always always. So, just adding this to the mix.

I freeze with fear, but I'm there for you.

Ah, Lizzytysh, you remind me of another of my favorite Leonard Lines:

Ya see I'm just another snowman
Standing in the rain and sleet.
Who loved you with his frozen love,
His second hand physique,

That one is so visual for me that I drew a picture of it.

Lili

Great list of memorable Leonard lines building up here; as Lizzytysh said, "All of the above"....and more. I love your choice of "She's a hundred but she's wearing something tight", Howthelightgetsin, surely one of the most optimistic lines ever written ! And Bonn1979, what could be more appropriate for you than your first choice ?! Best of all is "Thanks for the trouble you took from her eyes", as interpreted by Mnkyface on March 4th., which is surely the way Leonard intended it; her "old" lover has taken her for granted and "never tried", assuming that the troubled look in her eyes was there forever, but her "new" lover has given her new happiness and taken the trouble from her eyes, and her "old" lover is forced to acknowledge that he could have done better. That stopped me in my tracks the first time I heard it, and still does. If that was the only line Leonard ever wrote he deserves to be remembered for it !

Few songwriters can have so many powerful, memorable, lyrics that after almost 50 posts these haven’t yet appeared:

I saw her wince, I saw her cry,
I say the glory in her eyes.
Myself I long for love and light,
but must it come so cruel and oh so bright?
------------------------------------------------------
And draw us near,
oh bind us tight.
All your children here,
in their rags of light.
In our rags of light,
all dressed to kill,
and end this night,
If it be your will.
If it be your will.
-----------------------------
And when He knew for certain
Only drowning men could see Him
He said,"All men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them"

But He, Himself was broken
Long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone

As for his lyrics being suicidal, etc.; that is like saying that the blues is meant to make you sad. If anything its commiseration, these aren’t his experiences and feeling they are everyone’s. Who hasn't been there?

It is sad people would have this misunderstanding. They are missing some of the best art of any form on the planet.

… and end this night,
If it be your will.
If it be your will.

Ah, humbled, I couldn't agree more. You echo my feelings about the quality of sadness in Leonard's words. I find them mystically cleansing. So many of his lyrics bring tears to my eyes....tears streaming down my face....yet when all is said and done, it's as if those tears have washed me clean of things buried so deep within my soul that I had all but forgotten them.

It is refreshing to find so many like minded people here on this forum. Over 20,000 people ranging in age from teens to senior citizens, from all walks of life, from all over the world.........we are all drawn together......drawn near, bound tight, in our rags of light........by this wonderful mystical man. How very blessed we all have been.

Lili

drawn near, bound tight, in our rags of light........by this wonderful mystical man. How very blessed we all have been.

Hear Hear! I totally agree...
Mutti

Hi Lilifyre,
Nice to meet you.

I think it is interesting that you mentioned a mystical component. Something that struck me in browsing this site was the similarity to something else which would seem totally unrelated to any of this. Every once in a while through my life, at least every decade, the great religions sent their representatives to a world conference in some city to try and have a dialog; they always fail miserably. They have learned their truths through the brain by rote from some book. They are functionaries that are all defending some system.

What is seldom reported is that the “monks” of the various religions never have this issue. They always succeed in their dialog because there is no dialog to have. They have nothing to “discuss” they each have in common a personal experience that they share. It might be enjoyable to share thoughts on that experience but it is unnecessary and can never touch the experience itself. Here I feel like a monk of Cohen’s music among other monks. We have a shared experience.

Heinrich Zimmer says it best:
“The best things in life cannot be spoken of because they are beyond words, beyond thought. The next best things are misunderstood because these are the things that cannot be spoken of that we try to put into words.”

So I think of Cohen’s music. The best we can do in trying to put the meaning of his music into words is to be misunderstood. But then the monks have no need to speak.

The door is open you can't close your shelter
You try the handle of the road
It opens do not be afraid
It's you my love, you who are the stranger

I call to you, I call to you, but I don't call soft enough

With a child in my arms
And a chill in my soul
And my heart the shape
Of a begging bowl

These all stand out for me, though of course there are too many to mention.

Today these lines kept repeating in my head:

(Like sanssousci's above)
And I call to you, I call to you
But I dont call soft enough

That was a lovely post, Lilifyre, you summed it all up so well.
So many of Leonard's lyrics are so descriptive and beautiful and mean so much to all of us here.
I really love the version of 'Nancy' on 'Live Songs' and the opening line sets the mood of the whole song. I always look forward to these opening lines:
' The morning had not come,
Nancy was alone '

The depair and isolation that I (we) may have felt at different times in our lives is so deeply etched in this line........ Leonard has spent much of his life there and describes it so, so artfully. Yet there is hope.....that how the the light gets in ("Anthem") and so we plod forward.

"I have torn everyone who reached out for me"
(Bird on a Wire")

When a child leaves home to enter a new phase in life.

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,

Hi TineDoes,

That is one of my favourite lines and I posted it earlier in this thread, but I see it as two people who have known and loved each other over many years; their love undergoing changes as the years go by but always loving each other no matter what happens.

It is sooooo interesting how Leonard's words mean different things to different people

Touch me with your naked hand
Touch me with your glove

B4real wrote: That is one of my favourite lines and I posted it earlier in this thread, but I see it as two people who have known and loved each other over many years; their love undergoing changes as the years go by but always loving each other no matter what happens.

Hi B4real,
Yes, I had read them, it was in the same post as the 'with the photographs there and the 'moss/moths'.
The two people LC meant in 'Hey, that's now way..' were, like in you said, lovers I'm sure. But as Bono said in the I'm your Man film: Leonard Cohen gets you at every stage of your life. And he does!

So we struggle and we stagger
down the snakes and up the ladder
to the tower where the blessed hours chime.