An excuse to revisit Leonard Cohen's poetry
FRIENDS is sharing recommendations for great Canadian content to lighten the load of our shared experience during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Sign up here to get them by email.
As a Montrealer, I can glimpse the ghost of Leonard Cohen in our (now-deserted) streets. It's an archeology of Cohen stories, here. Here's one my father would tell me: he was working on a piece for a newspaper, and shared a cup of coffee in Cohen's house on Parc du Portugal. What happens next, you ask? Nothing. That's the whole story. But my father was treated to "a flake of [his] life." And, perhaps, that was enough. Years later, when we would walk on Saint-Laurent and pass the* Parc du Portugal*, he would say, unfailingly, "Did I tell you about the time I..."
It's still National Poetry Month, a fine excuse to revisit a few Cohen selections. All his songs and poems can be found scattered across a thousand platforms and places, and it's never too hard to find your favourite lyric or verse. Here are a few selections that might bring you to some new discoveries. — Jacob Homel
A year or so after Cohen died, the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art put together an exhibition celebrating his life and work. Selections from the exhibition are still available on the MACM website, including plenty of short films, and scattered writings. One piece in particular is worth a moment of meditation: Cohen's lyric from "Anthem," as performed in London in 2008. A reminder of beauty in broken things.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in
Branchez-vous à votre culture en vous abonnant aujourd'hui!
Isolation doesn't have to be isolating. Sign up and be part of the movement.
"Hallelujah," it is claimed, is the song that has been most covered by other artists of all time. Whether true or not, it's something worth believing. The website A Secret Chord allows us to do together what we do alone. Hum* the secret cord, that pleased the Lord, the holy or the broken, Hallelujah*. Turn the site's audio up, close your eyes, and listen to a recording of people from across the globe humming along to Cohen's famous song. Then join in. In this, our moment of great isolation, it offers connection at an atomic level.
After listening to Cohen's songs and reading his poetry, take time to explore his interviews. Archival footage abounds, and the CBC has quite the selection. Perhaps start with this 1966 interview by Adrienne Clarkson, in which our dear Cohen reminds us, "If you want people to have shiny shoes, you want to write very good instructions [on how to do so]. If you want to polish other parts of yourself, you do it with poetry."