Dear Cate,
What you wrote about masks is bullshit. If you go to a Cohen concert, who do you want to see? Donald Duck? Bob Dylan? No. You want to see genuine Leonard Cohen, the real McCoy. And be transfixed by the man and his magic and not any mask. This members' poetry section could be so much more. Instead of being ransacked and taken over by a cluster of hopeless ingrained 'characters', we could really be vibrant. We could discuss and find meaning and grow and make a difference. Now it just looks like some ramshackle used car yard with one king pin and his two offsiders ready to back him under any circumstance. It's like the readers are too scared to participate. Or maybe I have it all wrong. Maybe the readers enjoy their clowns making shitty humour, these morons and their pitiful wit. What's the bet they hail from affluence and they knew only spoiled childhoods. That they were shielded from, or had to deny too much, suffering. That they always rely on their intellect to solve problems, not their hearts and souls. Indeed, what's the bet most Cohenites are from privilege - tertiary educated, Toorak home, the best money can buy. Taxi drivers in Lahore or people who work the markets in Malawi or disability support pensioners in Melbourne would never be privy to such intricate poetry and perfect song, would they? It's all bullshit - this forum, these Cohen groupies who purport to be for the oppressed, but in reality are just a few rich Westerners playing cutesy with word, with clever syntax because they are so terminally bored. Their culture bores them sick. They do nothing to change the world. Nothing. Only scream their guts out for admiration and attention and feed their readers spiced up bourgeois safe crap. You are hypocrites, and you are snobs.
And yes, I know, I am too.
Fuck you.
Wow a Dear Cate followed by a 'fuck you' ending ...
I'll agree with the 'safe' thing - and I can only speak for myself not the other snobs and hypocrites. I'm having an issue with 'playing safe', feeling safe with what I'm writing now. Poetry may just be a hobby for me but I have this feeling of obligation or need of it (I feel like it was a friend when I was struggling and somehow it kept me from going to far down) and I'd like to eventually get over that need to feel safe hump.
The question of weather or not I'd like to see Leonard Cohen wearing a mask - well not a Donald Duck one but I've always assumed that I only see of Leonard what he wants me/us to see of him. It could be that, like looks for like, but to me he's always seemed a bit guarded.
As for play in the poetry section - there was a time when both play and poetry co existed, it made for what seemed like a creative space, I arrived towards the end of that time and thought it was great. I really do love when somebody, strangers even, come and post something that they want to share or homages to Leonard (that's actually my favourite). I'm not sure why less people post, it could be as you said that it's (we're) just not welcoming and they're afraid to, or that they don't like what they see here, or that people are choosing to share other places.
the post about masks had been a response to somebody who had confessed to wearing one - I guess it was off, that's okay, I said what felt true to me just as you did above.
Thank you for the bravery and trust you have demonstrated in sharing that.
