Dear Joe ~
As always, your beautiful words can only be enjoyed. Your "Layton's folly's" posting was still another. Thank you for taking the time and speaking as you have, with wisdom and insight. Your observations are so sadly true, in the way I know you mean them ~ on "life was too short," with regard to your own father's early death ~ I am so sorry that you have missed all those additional years with him, and that I was so fortunate to have with mine ~ and on "life was too long," given the sad conditions that Alzheimer's Disease force onto a person's being, with Irving.
As a woman, "especially from the back" has always conjured for me the downward curve that descends from the torso into the waist and then softly back out to the hips, and includes the curving in at the spine, for the length of that. Hearing it always creates an image of how men must view their beloved women with admiration, at times the women are totally unaware of the vision their men have of them and their appreciation. It's such a genuine expression of that. Gazing at a woman, looking into her eyes, or at her face, can sometimes be done for manipulative reasons. However, this image is totally absent that potential. It's a passive appreciation, in that regard and, in that, all the more powerful. At least that's how I, as a woman, have always felt and perceived that wonderful, four-word phrase.
Those lines of Layton's regarding Aviva in Paris really do elevate the "sacred imagery of the human form," as you've said, as do Leonard's above. The form as form itself. Leonard obviously was tuned into and receptive of it from the days of the arches of Elvira; but, it's clear that Irving assisted Leonard in honing his skills in
expressing those sensibilities. All of us are the benefactors of that exercise. The more I read of Layton and the things he's written, the more I
want to read of him.
Dear Tom ~
I have made a cursory look at the Internet for the full text of "The Graveyard," and find references to it, and the ISBN for it, but nowhere the poem itself. Someone, more computer adept than I ~ and that won't take much
~ will probably find it and bring it here for you. Anne is great with navigating and locating links, and Tchocolatl is also good... so, perhaps, it'll appear. From the sounds of it,
Phil may also come up with it. "Slowly I Married Her" ~ another splendid poem of
Leonard's that we talked about here.
You know how we are on getting these exchanges accomplished
~ however, if you'll let me know whether you have PAL or that other one, whose letters I always mix up, or the capability for viewing both, at will, I'll bring you a copy of what I have with Layton in it, to Berlin.
I have the strong sense that Leonard is deeply challenged ~ perhaps, even moreso than we are with him, for a broad range of reasons ~ to select a favourite line by Layton. It may just be that he has greater, 'public' opportunity to
reference Irving's line about growing old
.
He was pure energy.
So true.
It's good to see you here, Tom.
Dear Phil ~
Knowing now the additional and even deeper significance of your poem makes it all the more moving. For some reason, Leonard's haiku about the crickets... the silence... and the deeper silence... when the crickets hesitate... comes to my mind regarding how we want so much, sometimes, to say things, but hesitate at those moments, and plunge the expression, of what we want so much to say, into deeper silence because we hesitated... and then we carry on, instead.
I
also hope that, if you already haven't, that you, Kevin, are sharing ~ or will find a way to share ~ your feelings about your father, with him, while he is still alive. It can be so awkward, if there's that tension, for whatever reason, in a family relationship; but in the end, so worth breaking through it. It's amazing how strong those barriers can become, even self-perpetuating after awhile. I don't get the sense that that's there between you and him, so hopefully, he already knows your feelings and appreciation for him.
"Do It Now" and "Say It Now" are poems I read regularly, as a child, from a thick collection of varied ones. They were, perhaps, 10 verses long each, but the message they carry is self-evident from their titles. It's so difficult to be faced with the reality that you never said what you wanted, and now cannot. Still ~ there remain ways for resolve. Especially, because I believe in the afterlife and the spirit world, and that our loved ones are aware of the things we are doing and saying after their deaths, I feel that writing a poem, such as the loving tribute that you have for your father, can comfort you with the peace and resolve that you need. I genuinely hope so, Phil.
That poem Irving wrote about his mother is beautiful. Such a deep appreciation for who she was, even as death was claiming her in every way. [I read it through here some time ago, but can't remember in what context. For some reason, I associate it with Judith Fitzgerald, so may have read it on her site; or, it may have been presented as a part of another discussion here. I'm just not sure, not that it matters; it's just me wanting to know for sure.] What an incredibly strong tribute to his mother. I can picture her so easily with those amber beads, railing against G~d... and then, later, lying still on her deathbed. Thank you for bringing it here. May someone one day write an equally powerful tribute for Irving.
From the Canadian Jewish News, Jan. 11
Family friend and occasional visitor Rikee
Madoff said that the day before he died,
Layton “looked good, his face smooth and
calm.” He sat beside the piano as she
played old Yiddish songs for him.
posted by Tara Gowland at 1/11/2006
09:01:00 PM 0 comments
Thank you for posting this... this is the kind of thing people want to know and hear when a loved one dies. Such a beautiful vision, as though he was carried out in peace, by the treasured songs of his youth. Such a comfort. His mind may have been gone, but his heart wasn't... and those songs touched his heart.
Love,
Elizabeth
Actually, my selected poems don't have The Graveyard, the poem Cohen recited on the funeral last Sunday. I'd like to read it and to see it posted here.
And I think that your list of influences that Layton had for Cohen is excellent. I think back to "Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Leonard Cohen" and the panel scene where the moderator is challenging Cohen and Layton passionately defends him. That whole film is so interesting to me and brings back such vivid memories of another time. The students could have been my older brother and sister and their friends. Remember that those were extremely conservative times-look at how even Elvis was looked upon as some type of dangerous, subversive sexual presence-the camera would not show his swiveling hips. Encountering Layton with his passionate sexual poetry must have been such a liberating experience for Leonard and opened him to a type of language in verse that was very uncommon for the times.
