Happy belated birthday, Leonard!
We share one love together: love for the beauty of words. You've been a great source of inspiration to me. You opened new horizons and I feel very grateful for that. Before discovering your work, I thought only French singers were able to write poetry...
This is my tribute: "A Thousand Tears In The Sea". I stole the melody of "A Thousand Kisses Deep" - I hope you don't mind - but at least, I changed the lyrics

I recorded a video of this song on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NtR9kQXMPk and I pasted the lyrics below.
This is a song about discovering a great artist, falling in love with this artist, and finally trying to make the best out of it and just letting ourselves get inspired, separating the artist from the man, the reality from the fantasy.
I hope you'll enjoy all the subtleties of the subtext
Marie from Berkeley, CA
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A Thousand Tears In The Sea
Ode to Leonard Cohen
Video link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NtR9kQXMPk
I fell in love with the beauty
Of golden words whispered to me
I blindly swore fidelity
It was too late for mercy
They stabbed my heart, they wrapped my soul
In a soft and tight embrace
They drew a cross on my forehead
And kisses on my face
On Boogie Street in Babylon
It doesn’t matter where you’re from
Everyone knows the words of wisdom
Everyone sings on the tower of love
The holy dove has been caught again
And it's moving inside me
The only way to set it free:
Come within deep in me
An aborted love story
Due to the seeds of fantasy
A shooting star that disappears
Like a thousand tears... in the sea
You made me think, you made me sink
To the bottom of the sea
The only thing I could see
Was your light shining on me
I walked up your tower of song
I bowed to your mastery
You gave me ten poems of love
To send across the Seven Seas
The winds of change are blowing on me
My heart is now free
Floating on its own journey
Like a bottle in the sea