Poetry Book dedicated to Leonard

[woody]

Hi all,
I thought I would tell you about my new poetry book that's just been published called Afternoon Music.
It's dedicated to Leonard and acknowledges the significant impact he's had on both my writing and personal life. It also contains the below poem about Leonard that I wrote on hearing his death.

The book is available now on Amazon however if someone would like to read it and wants to PM I would be happy to put a free version in the post. The main thing is I would like people to read it.

www.tomharding.net
Amazon link-
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tom-Harding/e/ ... ont_book_1

In My Secret Life

Where did your words go, Jikan?
First read seventeen years ago
in the basement of a second-hand bookstore in Soho,
with the damp stench of London in my nose and clothes.
I read of your life on the mountain:
4 am wake-up calls, a vow of silence
ceremonial marches to the temple of quiet,
dampening your infamous longing
beneath heavy robes, I was hungry too

walking frozen rain-drenched streets,
this was the winter of ’01,
the world trying to understand itself
still naive to how dark it could become
while you were down from the mountain
with Ten New Songs.

Commandments to a secret life,
with a voice deeper than God’s.
I listened with winter in my ears,
through blackened streets, past alleyways,
candles made halos in the steam,
faceless bodies descended like mourners
into the drafty lamplit underground,
an old man with a bouzouki
sang the music of his homeland,
a blind man moved amongst us
tapping his cane like a Zen master’s Keisaku
as if to test our honesty,
as if to strike the indolent, the sleeping,
the unconscious, to dislodge the truth.
Jikan, do you remember what followed,
what scar formed from the burned heart
of that September,
how perfect their hatred became?

Oh, come back, Jikan,
in the robes of your longing,
return us to ourselves,
our secret lives; the sweetness of failure
come back, from your mountain.

[tom.d.stiller]

woody, i love this:

the world trying to understand itself
still naive to how dark it could become
while you were down from the mountain
with Ten New Songs.

l

[numandin]

I thought I was listening to words Jikan while I read them out loud to my friends. I hope one day I would get oppurtunity read your work as a whole.

[famousbluerain]

that's wonderful! good luck!

[woody]

Thanks all that's very kind of you to take the time to read.
The poem was about the year 2001 when I first moved to London. The world was coming to terms with the rupture of 11/9 and trying to understand what it could mean.
It felt like the end of an innocence of sorts. Ten New Songs was the first new album released at a time I was a Cohen fan and it was very comforting for me. His voice was so low and knowing, it sounded like the voice of a saint or prophet descended down from a mountain to offer wisdom and calm.
If anyone would like a free print copy of the book pm me and I'll happily send you a copy.

[solongleonard]

Soon-Yi Previn