Leonard Has Passed Away

[woody]

Dear friends,

I'm very sad for us all. I've been a member for a long time but have not posted for awhile but need to express my sadness at Leonard's passing. It's with a strange feeling of loss, incomparable for someone I've never met.

Thinking of Leonard's influence I go back to his own recollection of discovering Lorca, when, in the darkness of a bookstore in Montreal, his heart was opened by the line, "I want to pass through the arches of Elvira, to see your thighs and begin weeping" Similarly, in what seems another lifetime, I received a tape by post from my brother, songs of love and hate, where each song was a pathway, a chamber door, a connection with a secret life I didn't know existed but was instantly familiar. I went about the dark streets of London through what seemed an endless winter, as Frank O'hara might say 'with my heart in my pocket', in this case a book of poems, stranger music, walking amongst the damp faceless crowds, shuffling into the light of the underground station listening, "New York is cold, but I like where I'm living / there's music on Clinton Street all through the evening.”

Later there was more space and solitude. On a balcony in Greece I recall staying awake whilst my wife slept drinking mastika in the company of a stray dog and reading to the light of the moon, " Silence and a deeper silence when the crickets hesitate." There were many occasions such as this.

Any ideas of revolution I had were settled with an office job. I listened to In My Secret Life and read the Outsider, hearing the existential voice of I Can't Forget thinking it was the only politics going.
Years later I finally saw him in a theatre in Manchester. With a head full of red wine, witnessing him kneel beside a Spanish guitar was like watching a dream back I'd imagined man times. It moved me in a manner I couldn't verbalize. There was a sense of going home.
I once did dream of meeting Leonard. He sat across from me at a wooden table which he carved his initials into as I read him my poems. I couldn't hear his words but I knew I didn't have to be afraid as most people are when they meet their heroes. Part of me thought one day I might meet him but I never did.

Rarely a week goes by that I don't listen to his songs. To hear new words last week, driving home on roads I know well, turning corners in darkness, I was thinking of the reviews that said it was an end, a culmination of a life but I felt only excitement and a sense of renewal to hear new words from that voice, " Steer your heart past the Truth you believed in yesterday"

Now a baby is due early next year and life is changing again and my wife and I have discussed calling him Leonard - even though we already gave the cat that name. The cat is sat beside me now. He has that beautiful other worldliness and deep familiarity that all cats do and is at the heart of good poetry.
I'm reading all the beautiful thoughts people have given following Leonard’s passing and then Leonard's thoughts of Lorca, "I've never left that world. I stand here tonight and I invite you all to join me here. There's lots of space, there's no boundaries, there's no politics, no language. All you have to do is celebrate the sunlight coming through the hair of your beloved. It's a simple thing."
I live and linger in the space of Leonard's invitation. He shone through a world of static. He was a lighthouse keeper. He did the hard work and once again has gone before us. I'm so thankful to have known his work. Where he goes now I have no thoughts but know he is better placed than most of us to find his way.

My deepest condolences to his family and to all the people here and my thanks to Jarkko, Allan and all the others who have kept Leonard's work alive and continue to do so.

[Christiane]

Dear Mr Cohen,
when I heard the sad news on Friday I didn´t know where to find comfort because for
more than 40 years it has always been your words, your voice, your music, your songs
that helped me through times of sorrow. But in these days it is too painful to listen to
your unique voice.
I knew that the news would come, from your letter to Marianne, through the interview
with the New Yorker and through your beautiful last album where you prepared us for
what would happen - but not so soon.
Now I can only say thank you for making our lives so much richer and thank you to
Adam for making this exceptional and masterful album possible. And I am quite sure
that I will soon be able to find comfort and joy again in your work.
You are the only artist who has always touched me in my deepest heart and my love will last forever.

I hope that you have found your eternal peace and the place where it´s better than
before.

My deep condolences to Adam, Lorca and your grandchildren.

[Karren B]

There are no words to say; you said them all before it got darker.

I, like many others, will hold you in my heart always (just like Bernadette would do)!


xx

[Herman Souer]

It's a gloomy day when I heard that Leonard Cohen is deceased. There has gone a great artist. I appreciate the recent (2012-2016) his music. I already have music and listen often the last days. I wish the family at the loss of their father. Greeting Herman Souer Deventer / Netherlands

[birminghamfan]

Thank you , Leonard , for your wisdom , your support and for just being around. I too will never forget a Wednesday night at the Manchester Opera House. You may have left us , but your words will shine bright and eternal

We'll miss you

Steve

[Roy]

Saturday Night Live Hallelujah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I7aNlUcoiM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCTeL1OtRKA

[F. Cano]

My condolences to Adam, Lorca, and every other who is grieving. I wrote this earlier today, and I thought I might as well post it here. It's just a translation, so I'm sorry for any mistakes it may have.


Leonard Cohen, we have never met, I have never seen you in person. You don’t know and never will know anything about me, and yet I can’t avoid feeling a bond with you. A bond, now broken, on November seventh. Your death has torn a piece of my soul, a piece that will never come back.

When I heard you were gone, I didn’t even believe it. My father told me: Leonard Cohen has died. I couldn’t avoid searching for it, and when I saw it was true, I started crying. Crying as I hadn’t cried since the day my grandfather passed away, more than a year ago. Because I know, since I’ve known you, that we are friends.

I haven’t even known you for very long, maybe just a couple of years. But in this time you have touched my soul as nobody else has, you have made with me a bond of mutual understanding only you could establish. You helped me in the worst moments of my life, as when my grandfather died, and the terrible times that followed. Your music has been, for a very long time, the only thing capable of soothing me, of calming me, and for this I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I have been unable until today to listen to any of your songs. I couldn’t. And when I did today, and I thought I would be able to hold back, I wasn’t. The first one I put is String Reprise / Treaty, the last song of your last disc. And when you started singing, at the end of the song, talking to us, to me, I started crying again. After Hallelujah and So Long Marianne I couldn’t listen to anyone else. I am not even writing this with your music. I wouldn’t be capable. But I know I will be able to enjoy your music again someday.

It’s because of this that I’m writing to you. You were a great man, a kind and humble genius, a humanist capable of understanding people like no one else could. Your death leaves a void that cannot be filled. Your smile, that peculiar smile of yours, will never be seen again. I will never see it. Because I know that what I see will just be a shadow on the wall of the cave.

This last disc has been your goodbye. I know that you knew what was coming and that when you said you wanted to live until you were 120 you only did so to ease our worries. And I thank you for that too. I hope your passing was good, if that is even possible.

This Friday I lit a candle for you. I don’t know if it’s going to be any good, I’m not a religious person. But it was something I had to do, something out of my heart. I don’t want, I can’t, say goodbye to you. Not yet. So, au revoir, Leonard. I hope someday we’ll meet again.

[John Etherington]

It's taken me nearly three days to get to the board. The last three days have been spent in mourning and celebration of Leonard's life, including many lengthy telephone calls with friends. I heard from two reliable sources earlier this year that Leonard had not been well, but hoped for the best. However, the first time I heard the song "You Want it Darker" on August 12th, I got an ominous feeling that it might be Leonard's "Blackstar". I posted a message to this effect on the first page of the album thread, here. When I saw the video that Adam posted on his Facebook page recently, where Leonard is listening to "Treaty", I sensed he was dying and posted a tribute there. As I recall, I said "Please give my love and gratitude to Leonard. I thank him for everything he has done, and his work is a part of my soul. I was fortunate enough to attend the first London concerts by both Leonard and Adam". R.I.P Leonard

[Klaus@Kokanee]

Dear Leonard,

I have been blessed to have lived my entire adult life during the era of Cohen. You songs and work have enriched my life immeasurably. Thank you Leonard, for the following words from ‘Boogie Street’ to help get me through this heartbreaking loss:

“So come, my friends, be not afraid - We are so lightly here
It is in love that we are made - In love we disappear”

Good-bye my friend.

(Sharon Robinson’s conclusion of “Boogie Street” at the Lisbon Concert on Youtube has been a balm)

[MarieM]

James Taylor posted on Facebook an audio tribute to Leonard, a rendition of Suzanne by Taylor and Yo Yo Ma.

https://www.facebook.com/JamesTaylor/vi ... =2&theater

[sue7]

I was fortunate enough to discover Leonard through a copy of "Selected Poems 1956-1968" in my public library in the intellectual thirstland where I grew up in South Africa. I was 15 and it was 1972. The following year I found "Songs from a Room" at a friend's house, and when I was 17 someone lent me a battered copy of "Beautiful Losers" (banned in SA at the time).
Leonard's work opened doors, windows, universes for me.
Since then I have been blessed to have his songs, poetry and presence in the world as part of my life.
I am so appreciative of everything he has given me, and continues to give in his absence.
To Lorca, Adam and family, please accept my sincere condolences. As is the Jewish custom in South Africa, I wish you long life.
Sue

[basecamp]

My heartfelt condolences to Leonard's family, friends and to all who really loved him!
I'm so sad but I'm also grateful for the music and the poetry Leonard brought into my life!
So long Leonard!
Hans xx

[Diane]

So knowing and mourning are holding hands once again,
time having taken its inevitable toll.

Those he leaves behind are orphans now, all of us — and we inherit a rare treasure.

Let me bow to both truths, the awful one and the grateful one,
and let sadness do what it must.

My condolences to his family, and my loving respect to himself.

Farewell, Leonard Cohen.
Gassho

Thank you for your beautiful sentiments.

+1

[Cohenfan16]

Sad that Leonard has passed away, but his songs and poems will live on. I have followed his work from the very first album ,he will be greatly missed.
Sincere sympathies to Adam ,Lorca and families - keep his memory alive!

A great man and an inspiration ,goodbye Leonard may you now have peace!.

[Xtineberg]

Friday I posted a message, which was not posted! I think I did something wrong in the panical circumstances.
Again my sincere condolences to Adam , Lorca, the grandchildren and the family and close friends.
We were so lucky to be alive at the same time Leonard Cohen was and knowing that we breathed the same air as he did on this small,planet in the universe.
The great professor of all there is to know is and will be my guide for the rest of my life with his words, his music and his humor.
I am deeply sad and deeply grateful. I bow my head!
Christine