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Not having a copy of my own of this poem, I copied and pasted it from the internet - I hope all the words are correct.

Herewith...

The Graveyard

Lord, I understand the plan, the news is out:
I kill him, he kills me, change and change about,
And you ever in the right, and no wonder
Since it's no great matter who's up, who's under.
Teuton or Slav, Arab or suffering Jew -
Nature, Justice, God - they are all one to you.
The lion breeds the lamb and the antelope
As evil breeds good; darkness light; despair, hope.

And though your scheme confound theologians' wits
All come and go sired by the opposites;
And they decree: he who slays and he who's slain
Leave on your excellent world no crimson stain.
The tragic, warring creatures that here have breath
Are reconciled in the partnership of death;
And death's akin to art, and artists please
To the measure they have stilled the contraries.

Energy must crackle on a silent urn,
Nothing catch fire though Jerusalem burn,
And the lion poised on the poor bok to spring
Hold in his furious jaws no suffering.
Motion and rest, love and hate, heaven and hell
Here cease their Punch-and-Judy show: all is well.
There is no pain in the graveyard or the voice
whispering to the tombstones: "Rejoice, rejoice".

Irving Layton

Dear Bobbie ~

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find it. You tried and succeeded, and I'm very glad. Thank you so much for posting this poem in its entirety. Very fitting and with more of the, apparently, Layton-signature, powerful images. Thanks very much, Bobbie.

~ Lizzy

Hi Lizzy, and thank you..

I was trying to find stuff for Ernie (E-VERSE), so he can run a poem in his ezine,in honour of Irving, and who also couldn't find anything online - and, by his own admission, doesn't know very much about Irving Layton. So I went looking, in hopes to find The Graveyard. I typed into Yahoo, "The Graveyard Irving Layton", and came upon a link called "garbage and the flowers" "Hmmmmmm.......", I thought.

Well.

You can take it from there. What a lovely account this young man wrote in his blog about his admiration of Irving Layton, his influence on his life, how his poetry contributed to the appreciation of the city in which he lives, Montreal, of attending the funeral, of seeing Leonard there, and how he looked "stately", "tired". "weak", and how he couldn't imagine how he must have felt, laying his friend of 50 years to rest. I just now posted a comment to him via his blog, telling him of this place, and said I hoped he would come here and tell us his story, that we would love to hear about his experience. So I hope he will.

When I read further on in the blog, I discovered that he was so influenced by the poetry of Irving Layton that he named his band after one of Irving's poems, "The Improved Binoculars".

The Improved Binoculars
Irving Layton

Below me the city was in flames:
the firemen were the first to save
themselves. I saw steeples fall on their knees.

I saw an agent kick the charred bodies
from an orphanage to one side, marking
the site for a future speculation.

Lovers stopped short of the final spasm
and went off angrily in opposite directions,
their elbows held by giant escorts of fire.

Then the dignitaries rode across the bridges
under an auricle of light which delighted them,
nothing for later punishment those that went before.

And the rest of the populace, their mouths
distorted by an unusual gladness, bawled thanks
to this comely and ravaging ally, asking

Only for more light with which to see
their neighbour's destruction.

All this I saw through my improved binoculars.
________________

So... I hope he comes here, this young and sensitive blogger from Montreal.

Bobbie

Thank you for that additional account, Bobbie .

I typed in the same thing, but it looks like I gave up too soon with exploring the links [unless ~ maybe ~ that one appeared after my searching?]. I'm glad that it was there for you, or that you pursued until you found it. Yes ~ there was definitely the hint you needed to go further.

I'm very glad you invited that young man here and hope, as you do, that he shows up. I tried the link to the blog whose address the woman provided here through Jarkko. However, my computer at work gave me a message that I was not authorized to view that site . I'll try, again, tomorrow, from home. It's very late here now. I'll also follow the steps you took to read the accounts you're speaking of by this young and sensitive Montrealer. It sounds very worthwhile. Thanks.

The Improved Binoculars ~ More powerful images of Irving Layton's. This excellent poem also resonates with me in terms of New Orleans.

I'm looking forward to the E-Verse that pays tribute to Irving. Did you initiate the idea with Ernie? If so, I'm glad. If not, I'm glad you're assisting in finding him material for it. Ernie, as for some of us, is in for some literary surprizes. Unfortunately ~ and, yet, not so ~ some will discover Leonard in the same way. It's the way of life and legacy.

Thanks, again, for returning with all this additional information.


~ Lizzy

Bobbie wrote:
>What a lovely account this young man wrote in his blog about his admiration of Irving Layton . . .

"Whatever was between Irving and I . . . does not bear repeating," said Leonard recently. What was he talking about? What could they have possibly done together that is so private that both are willing to take their secret to the grave? I demand to know what it was they did. I want to know and I have a right to know.

Dear Geoffrey ~

First, it's so good to have you back here .

Second, and the point of my response ~

Of course, I know you know this, but I'll say it anyway; since your knowing this didn't stop you from saying what you did ~ the 'contentious' or 'roving' aspects of their relationship were was what being referenced, along with or perhaps, even moreso, I believe, Leonard's not wanting at that particular time to seem to want to be focusing on himself, in any form or fashion. The more controversial things certainly did not bear repeating at a time such as this, if ever. They were what they were. Their enduring friendship is what matters. The anecdotal, although positive, ones involving Leonard, would serve to shift focus to satisfy curiosities about Leonard, as well, and would fog the focus. Leonard wanted the focus to remain like crystal ~ this was Irving's time, to be focused on Irving.

I don't recall whether the context of those words was an interview, wherein, given Leonard's response, the media may well have gone on the strength of Leonard's words, deleting what preceded them [perhaps, a question relating to the more 'exciting in the media's eyes' aspects of their relationship, of Irving's ego, etc. and wanting some more 'juicy' copy ~ or Leonard's simply intuiting that this was the direction they were hoping he'd go, and he, thereby, in dignified manner, summarily dismissed the notion, and stopped them in their tracks]. Leonard didn't care if people might subsequently be asking questions such as yours .

If this was part of Leonard's words officially spoken at the ceremony, then this was simply Leonard's way of quickly omitting the inclusion of himself ~ he knows his own importance in Canada and much of the rest of the world, with those who might be watching/listening/reading ~ and quickly reclusing himself, he very efficiently was able to convey the message that, "This is about Irving, not me; and my focus today is on the importance of Irving's words and body of work, that which was of penultimate importance to Irving. I am here to remind you that we have lost Irving, but Irving will forever live on through his words. Now, let us together consider a few of those, exceedingly important words."

There is plenty of time for Leonard's anecdotal remembrances of Irving; and as he noted, Irving would be very upset if this many people were gathered, and none of his poetry was read. Leonard, in those moments, with his own words and those of Irving, all but erected a gleaming, marble Taj Mahal in memory of his dear friend, mentor, inspiration, and teacher, Irving Layton.


Love to you and to them,
Elizabeth

lizzytysh wrote:
>the 'contentious' or 'roving' aspects of their relationship were was what being referenced . . .


Thank you, Lizzie, for this. But what do you think they did? What picture did you see when you read those words? Because it is natural and necessary for the human mind to visualise verbalisations - to make the word three dimensional flesh. I just want to know what these two got up to. One of them is dead now, so there's no need for discretion unless the survivor is ashamed. Nobody is going to judge anybody - we live in an enlightened age. We are all adults here and I object to being treated like I am not old enough to know or understand what went on. Nobody is asking for details. Do you think it was something sexual? I thought we were all supposed to be open with each other here and not have any secrets. If you had to guess, what do you think might have been the nature of Leonard's coyness? He's no prude. We are all born with an imagination, and I would like to know what people imagined when Leonard said that the acts he and that other man committed were so bad that he wouldn't talk about them. You cannot hear somebody say that and not form an idea of what they are hinting at. I think he should be a man and confess or else people will always speculate and in the end there will be rumours and it will snowball into such a monstrous outrage that will forever taint their literary work. I don't want to read Mr Layton's poems I want to know what he did with Leonard, who took the initiative to it and which of the two was the dominant partner - and how long did it go on for and where did they do it.

The poem "The Graveyard" is in the 1968 collection 'The Shattered Plinths'. I was going to type it out because I do have a copy of that book, but, thankfully, Bobbie beat me to the task!

There was a really great article by Max Layton in yesterday's Globe and Mail, but I can't seem to link to it. I think the paper wants you all to pay to see it! He talked a lot about his personal memories about his father, and he didn't seem displeased at all with the national TV and newspaper obituaries, but recognized that they focussed more on him as a poet and a famous man, than on the man he knew.

. . . people will always speculate and in the end there will be rumours and it will snowball . . .

I think we may have at least one key word in there, somewhere... see if you can't find it .

As for speculation, this is not new, nor a hidden notion with Leonard ~ " . . . Is my passion perfect? No, do it once again . . . " has kept the titillation crowd content for years . As for me, well, " . . . frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." T'is not for me to know or care .

Happy contrivances to you , mon ami,
< * Leonard, of course, is used to it * >
Lizzy

The crucial question is when will you be reading aloud ?

I hope you'll be able to locate and bring it here, Anne. It would be enlightening from that aspect mentioned, I'm sure. I know I can't afford to pay for an online subscription to the Globe and Mail.

~ Lizzy

Hi Lizzy..

Yes, I emailed Ernie about it, after waiting and waiting well into the week for some sort of "tribute". I guess that's what I had been expecting... a halt to the planned E-Verse on some particular day (the day after the funeral, or at least shortly thereafter) and replaced by an issue dedicated to the memory of Irving Layton. In hindsight, I don't know what I could have been thinking, as everything has it's own degree of significance, and what might be important to us isn't necessarily so in in another arena. Ernie wrote back to say that he had posted a link about it earlier in the week, and to check my back issues, which I did, and indeed a link had been provided on Monday, which I had somehow missed. I thought I had been appeased at that point, but turns out I wasn't. I emailed Ernie back and told him that I'd found the link, but that I was still surprised that there hadn't been any sadness expressed by any E-Versers, no farewell, no comments, no nothing. I asked him, in complete frustration, "was he just not that well known?" Ernie replied that he'd had a lot of comments and links sent in email, mostly all from Leonard Cohen fans, of which there are several E-Verse subscribers (I had sent him some as well, on the Sunday of Irving's funeral). He also said that he hadn't read any notices of his death on any of the poetry boards, and that surprised me, too. After that, it started gnawing at me. I wrote back a few seconds later and said that I supposed "poets die every day, don't they."

But here I am, making a long story even longer, when all I really needed to say was yes, I initiated the momentum re: posting something written by Irving Layton on E-Verse, and with the help of Joe this weekend, Ernie now has several poems from which to choose for posting in an upcoming issue. Whichever poem he decides to go with is ok by me.

Bobbie

A report on the funeral written by Rich Baines has been posted on the main site. Use this direct link:
http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/layton2006.html

Thanks for that link Jarkko.

Geoffrey, obviously (too me) he meant that there was a space of sacred intimacy (though "sacred" and "intimacy" are synonym to me) between them.

Usually, people respect instinctively the intimacy of others when they recognize it. They don't feel the need to know more and they don't have the surge to imagine all kinds of things. There is no such thing as "the right to know about" the intimacy of other people under the pretext of "not being prude" or having no secret between buddies. A secret garden exits in everybody and should be kept free to be.



Now. Just for you and from the Concise Oxford Dictionary :

Intimacy : State of being intimate: (ephem.) sexual intercourse.

I guess it is not of a help but maybe that makes things worst in your case, so I continue.

Intimate :1. a. Close in acquaintance, familiar, (intimate friend, friendship); (euphem.) having sexual intercouse with; (of connection etc.) close; (of knowledge etc.) resulting from close familiarity; (of mixing etc.) throrough: essential, intrinsic, closely personal; (of diary) recording emotions etc. franky; promoting close personal relationships; hence 2. n. Intimate friend.

Tchocolatl wrote:
>Geoffrey, obviously . . . he meant that there was a space of . . . intimacy . . . between them.
>
>Intimacy: State of being intimate: (ephem.) sexual intercourse.


Well, I suppose you are thinking of the reference to 'anal sex' in one of his songs. But I don't know if I would go as far as you suggest here. There is the scene in Beautiful Losers where the narrator and Irving ('F') engage in onanistic pleasure, but it goes no further than the storyteller wishing he possessed an 'anteater's tongue'. There was nothing oral, no physical interaction. Then there is the notorious interview, about ten or twelve years ago, when a journalist asked Leonard if he'd ever had a gay relationship - and he confessed that he'd felt 'stirrings' for other men. I remember that this admission didn't affect me - it was actually quite a brave thing to say. I'd been reading Nancy Friday's 'Secret Garden' compilation of fantasies - so perhaps that had primed me, somewhat. I would have preferred it, though, had he said 'another man' rather than the plural 'men'. Well, yes - this is a private area. What happened with Janis was also intimate - but less taboo. To quote Dylan: "You can sell privacy, but you can't buy it back." I appreciate you having the courage to participate in this discussion. Not everyone would be willing. Thank you.
Geoffrey.

I hope you'll be able to locate and bring it here, Anne. It would be enlightening from that aspect mentioned, I'm sure. I know I can't afford to pay for an online subscription to the Globe and Mail.

Yes, Lizzy. There are about a half dozen articles on the funeral with various tributes (pic of Leonard), but I can't access the 'full' stories. I registered for a 'free' trial to the Globe, and that cost $15.00 just for a look at these articles. The Globe is available on just about every news-stand in Canada, but I was too late in getting that edition. If I can find a back-issue, I'll bring it here.

Linda.