How has Cohen's music and/or poetry enriched your life?

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sbreen
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How has Cohen's music and/or poetry enriched your life?

Post by sbreen »

I have his music playing in my car on the way to and from work.

I choose the music that best suits my mood.

I will either be singing along enthusiastically - or listening intently - depending on my mood.

Often I will play one or two songs over and over during my 45 minute drive.

His books of poetry are often bedtime-reading-of-choice.

I have been listening to Leonard Cohen for almost 40 years.

I can't imagine my life without his influence.
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lightasabreeze
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Re: How has Cohen's music and/or poetry enriched your life?

Post by lightasabreeze »

Ditto, to everything you mention - even the 40 years - but sometimes the driving bit gets hazardous when I am dreaming
at a red light that turns to green and eyes closed, I am still dreaming......
Somebody must have died for you
A Thousand Kisses Deep

London 02 x 3..... Radio city New York... Wet Weybridge..... Wembley Arena... Brighton..
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LisaLCFan
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Re: How has Cohen's music and/or poetry enriched your life?

Post by LisaLCFan »

You are certainly not alone, sbreen! I think many of us share your experiences almost precisely! I seldom leave my house without Leonard (usually in the form of my iPod), and I have grown accustomed to the strange looks I get from passers-by when they watch me swaying/skipping/smiling dreamily/singing along/dancing/suddenly laughing out loud, as I wander in my time. I cannot imagine a day without Leonard's songs or words.
jasmina/r
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Re: How has Cohen's music and/or poetry enriched your life?

Post by jasmina/r »

I've been listening Leonard's music for 36 years. I'm sure he makes me a better person :D
Steven
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Re: How has Cohen's music and/or poetry enriched your life?

Post by Steven »

Hi,

There were replies, but nobody really answered the question posed (including me). :)
Tchocolatl
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Re: How has Cohen's music and/or poetry enriched your life?

Post by Tchocolatl »

Maybe it is because most of the fans have already answer to this a long time ago (don't say "nancy" please) and/or maybe it is because this has to do with the numenous experience which is a mystery and therefore can be lived but not explained?
***
"He can love the shape of human beings, the fine and twisted shapes of the heart. It is good to have among us such men, such balancing monsters of love."

Leonard Cohen
Beautiful Losers
Rain
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Re: How has Cohen's music and/or poetry enriched your life?

Post by Rain »

I think the question is so deep and vast, it would take more room than a forum post could handle, for an accurate reply.

I'll try to itemize my two cents worth:

Enrichment No 1. Leonard Cohen RELAXES me. I'll bet if you hooked a heart monitor up to me while I'm listening to him, it would show that. He has one of the most soothing deep male voices I've ever heard. (Think of a cello.) You know how they say petting a dog or cat lowers your blood pressure; Cohen's voice does the same thing. (Of course, the FIRST time I heard and saw him, my heart pounded out of my chest like on a cartoon......so I guess he can RAISE blood pressure ;-)

Enrichment No 2. If I'm feeling down or depressed, he can bring me out of it. This is in total contrast to what a lot of people (not fans) say about him, namely, that he is depressing to listen to. I've NEVER found that to be true. In fact, due to Cohen's own struggle with depression, I think he can accurately convey those feelings in a song or poem, far surpassing anyone who just writes a "cry in my beer" tune. Because of this ability he has, the result is an uplift for me. Maybe it's because I feel that there is someone else feeling that way and I don't feel as alone after listening to him. A lot of people miss the humor in his works too......he is HILARIOUS.

Enrichment No. 3 Even though he's never seen me, he makes me feel beautiful. I feel beautiful, physically, when I listen to him. I feel like I'm being seduced by a lover. In reality, if he saw me, he probably wouldn't notice me passing by on the street, as an "attractive" woman. Then, on the other hand, who can know what attracts him? I think, also, that when he speaks of his own insecurities about thinking of himself as unattractive, we all identify with that as well. Thanks to society's warped, corrupt definition of what beauty is, we need reassurance CONSTANTLY, that we are not repulsive. Sad that it has come to this. On that note, too, I'll never understand why Cohen thinks he's ugly. I've looked and I've looked at photos of him, trying to find SOMETHING not to like about him, physically, and I can't come up with a single thing. It's like looking at one of those 3-D poster things with the picture hidden---I just can't find it! Cohen has been cute all his life, judging from the photos. Now he has grown into this distinguished, elegantly dressed, elder gentleman, still seductive at nearly 77.......tell me what's ugly about that......I just can't find it.

I could go on and on, but I will now get off my soapbox and quit preaching to the choir.... :lol: ......

----Rain
sbreen
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Re: How has Cohen's music and/or poetry enriched your life?

Post by sbreen »

:)

Rain, Thank you very much for the time and thought you put into this reply.
stella s.
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Re: How has Cohen's music and/or poetry enriched your life?

Post by stella s. »

I started to listen to LC, when I was a teenager. I felt really bad and Cohen's music comforted me. After listening to Songs of Love and Hate or Songs from a Room I used to think: "If the guy, who wrote these songs is still alive, there is a way to go on ..." Well, it worked - 30 years later, I'm still here, enjoying Cohen's music.

And Leonard Cohen's songs improved my English. I learned some words they would not teach us at school. :oops: :lol:
Carmen Palomino
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Re: How has Cohen's music and/or poetry enriched your life?

Post by Carmen Palomino »

His music is part of the sound track of my secret life (along with Santana, Hendrix,...)
SophieP
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Re: How has Cohen's music and/or poetry enriched your life?

Post by SophieP »

Actually I discoverd Leonard Cohen's music in a psychiatrist's waiting room, not knowing anything about him or his songs. I stopped the visits to the psychiatrist's but not listening to his music. It's true his voice and rythms have a very rare soothing, calming quality, it's like being on a boat trip or something.
Rain
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Re: How has Cohen's music and/or poetry enriched your life?

Post by Rain »

I moved this post, with the photo of my painting, over to the comments and questions thread, where I had already talked about my artwork. (Didn't want to take up two threads...sorry for hogging space, forgive me :roll: ) Just got all excited and started talking too much....it's a southern girl's curse........

--Rain
Last edited by Rain on Mon Jul 04, 2011 11:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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kwills
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Re: How has Cohen's music and/or poetry enriched your life?

Post by kwills »

Rain, that scene with the Raven is so atmospheric,I feel like weeping with him.
Manchester 19th June/Cardiff 8th Nov
st theresa1
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Re: How has Cohen's music and/or poetry enriched your life?

Post by st theresa1 »

Always a tough question--because it is such a deep one. Leonard has been with me so long--longer than most of my friends--and deeper than most of my family. From the first rolling on the floor laughter of Bird on a Wire to the metaphysical connection of a 1000 kisses deep, he has been a reflection of the spiritual self that I could not find the words to express. I didn't know that when I started--it was actually an older brother who introduced him--thanks Ken! My whole family seemed to hear his voice as I did. Not sure if my parents did, but both my parents loved music and poetry, so I guess it was a natural thing. So to answer the question of how he has enriched my life, I would have to say, he was a connector of me with my spiritual being. When I heard him sing, Jesus was a sailor and he walked upon the water, and he spent a long time watching from his lonely wooden tower, and when he knew for certain only drowning men could see him, he said all men shall be sailors then until the seas shall free them. When I heard those words, I was completely and forever captured. My life has been a spiritual quest, and Leonard gave me permission, not to have the answers. The fact that he was Canadian somehow made it seem more personal and more real.
That is my answer for now I guess.
Johnnyzgb
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Re: How has Cohen's music and/or poetry enriched your life?

Post by Johnnyzgb »

Just in a few sentences..
His music is medicine for soul that is tired of everyday junk.
His messages heal heart when somebody rip it apart.
Or when there is no one around to rip it.
His poems..ah,don't know that word to describe them enough good.
But they fit so well when you recite them to somebody you love at 4 in the morning.
They even inspired me to try write something on paper when emotions grow inside me.
I thank him for that!
:)
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