HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LEONARD!

[Violet]

I’m posting one more poem here since my mind started wandering over mountains, and… in any case, I don’t mean to be morbid with this, especially on Leonard’s (now belated) birthday thread. Instead, I thought to speak of what it is to be deeply missed...



The blessed contours of your face


this earth
a desolate place,

without
the blessed contours

of
your face.

and

in the way of mountains
crumbling down
in
death’s bereft, I fear this

loss (when mountains
will be left.)


though with your self
evolving

toward its end (no
time to waste)

when finer threads of mind
dissolve to grace;

in loss
we’ll keep these

smallest clues (the pen
you used to

use) as
if your secret

had a secret
place.


But now

in slumbering mountains
do I find,

such shades of loss as
tends this grieving

mind,

for
mountains in their midnight
deftly trace,

these

quiet

beloved contours

of
your face.



Violet, 09 27-29 08

[gammahay]

This is beautiful. For what its worth, Happy {late} Birthday from me too.

Barb in LA

[Tchocolatl]

From Leonard in Bucharest:

Thank you so much for your good wishes, your encouragement, and your blessings.
They are deeply appreciated.

Leonard

Very beautiful poem, Violet

It reminds me of this one. I thought you may enjoy to read it right now.

HILLS AND HILLS

The hills
remind me
of you

Not because
they curve soft and warm
lovely and firm
under the Greek sun

Or flow
towards the horizon
in slow limpid waves
falling away mysteriously
at the edge of the sea

So that I can only surmise
their being there
beyond my gaze
and stare into the greyness

But because
a long time ago
you stared at them
as I am staring now

Irving Layton



I respond to the "false prophet" taking for granted that the "real one" is answered by the Universe, so I can remain silent about the joy I feel to have read this note written by him for us. Forgetting that I am part of the Universe. For a while. Which is enough for expressing Eternal Love.


A bit of expression :

té 2008.JPG

[Violet]

Thank you Barb and Tchocalati for your words of appreciation... and thanks T.C. for posting the other poem, I can see why you thought of it... it makes for a lovely conversation between the two...

Violet

[groefi]

Dear, loved Leonhard
as times change and worlds unite I decide to write to you. It seems, that after listening to your god´s given words I became able to write my own fate. It was you and my imagonary friend Udo who called me. I thank you for beeing an idol to my father. I tell you a little secret - she picked that line "strike me down in anger - here I stand" as if there weren´t others, more pleasent to me
Maybe - if it´s my way - i´m looking forward to share my little story about love and loss with you. If it´s your will i´ll get on my knees for you. Let´s compare our mythologies - I invite you to Hamburg!
To good seamanship, I do love you - Ole

[evelyn]

Happy Birthday Leonard,

Thank you for being.
You have always been a source of inspiration in my life.

Evelyn

[masha snasha]

Dear Leonard,
In 1989 I bought a tape of your music at a counter of a drugstore in a small Serbian town; I had never heard it before, and I was struck by it and afflicted and 21 and I fell in love with love / with beaty / with eternity and suddenly knew there was greater wisdom and purpose after all behind these otherwise massively marketed concepts.
My experience of your music had a quallity of a sacred vow; I was conspirative about it, as it happens at 21, so I was reluctant to advertise it, but whenever I would, the fascination would spread like bush fires...
There has always been something of your work to buy arround here, and it is not merely because of the European tradition of (poetic) self-revelation but also because of what we all share and it is written in many layers of culture, and the universal values you have indeed touched with the heavy hand. Anyway, people have been able to rediscover your work. Or rather, they have been able to discover the layers of it. Now there’s obscene lot of Youtube-ing you and downloading (no doubt your latest big tour brought that about). Going happily with the introverted fashion, I came across the Julian Cough`s verse (or "rabbit droppings" as her reffered to it) in his "Book of Longing has Desturbed My Sleep" and thought, remorseful allready, that I too ought to write to Leonard Cohen and thank him before he dies.
I refrain from reading artists` biographies in detail. I wonder, though, whether you have been able to go back for your life’s masterpiece after all.
Thank you, Leonard Cohen.
Marina from Belgrade, Serbia

[JOSIECYBERSPACE]

To one of the most Coolest, Iconic, Enduring Musical Artists...who has Matured
like a Rare Vintage Wine, to be savoured and enjoyed....like I did Your Magical
Concert in Dublin in June 08, this Year....!

I belatedly Wish You A VERY HAPPY 74th YOUNG HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
and HEY..I AM GOING TO HAMBURG to Another of Your Concerts.,
ON OCTOBER 31st!! Yipppeeee!!

I will Drink a Birthday Toast to You, A Glass of Guinness at the Weekend.

Slan....Josephine From Galway, West of Ireland.xx

[catherine]

My love, my darling, I'm late as usual, but at the time of your birthday I was handicapped, lost somewhere where there was no computer.
Thank you anyway for the great concert in Oberhausen. I missed some gigs earlier this year, and I hope to see you in Britain in December.

Caroline.

[Natalie]

Very belated and please excuse the French as a second language . . . (you know where the accents go -- do not know how to represent them on a keyboard)

La Belle Vie

J'ecris des lettres au'jourd'hui
Je pense a toi - tu es jolie
J'espere etre avec toi
Quelque jour, quelque jour

Tu es une belle fleur
Mon amie, ma meilleure soeur
Je vis les roses dans la terre
Tu es le soleil; tu es ma mere

Je pense a toi chaque jour
Mais je n'ai pas peur
Tu dormis et je reste
dans ma maison avec notre bebe

Ma mere, tu etudais la francais
Je chante pour toi, pour moi
J'ecris pour mes meilleures amies
Et ma petite famille

Je vis maintenant
Je suis un recreant
Dans ton amour
Dans ton amour