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Keep on keepin' on, and embrace that prime with all the gusto you've got, Miss Brodie. Life is too short not to.

Too true...

Can't remember the name of the author, but there's a poem that was voted Britain's favourite a few years ago that begins 'When I am an old woman I shall wear purple...' I rather fancy the idea that some day people might look at me and say, 'She's a hundred but she's wearing something tight'!!

(Preferable when I actually am a hundred, of course, and not before!)

~ Especially on your last note ! Yes, I know the poem. In fact, here they have Purple/Red Hat 'Society's, where women gather together and pronounce themselves to the world through their colours.

Warning-when I am an old woman I shall wear purple
By Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
with a red hat that doesn't go and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
and satin candles, and say we've no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired
and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
and run my stick along the public railings
and make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
and pick the flowers in other peoples gardens
and learn to spit.


You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
and eat three pounds of sausages at a go
or only bread and pickles for a week
and hoard pens and pencils and beer nuts and things in boxes.

But now we must have new clothes that keep us dry
and pay our rent and not swear in the street
and set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
when suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

Thanks for reminding me of this poem,
Rob

Hi Rob,

And thanks to you for posting it!

Right, I'm off to buy a red hat. And some brandy.

...and she bends to my longing
like a willow, like a fountain
she stands in the luminous air



and


the moon is swimming naked
and the summer night is fragrant
with the mighty expectation of relief

I love too much to narrow it down. The Story of Isaac was the first song I recall ever hearing. Last weekend i saw an eagle and his words went through my head again and agian. I still love this song 22 years later. every line is perfection.

Well, the trees they got much smaller,
the lake a lady's mirror,
we stopped to drink some wine.
Then he threw the bottle over.
Broke a minute later
and he put his hand on mine.
Thought I saw an eagle
but it might have been a vulture,
I never could decide.


And mercy on our uniform,
man of peace or man of war,
the peacock spreads his fan.

I love in the CBC interview when he said
http://archives.cbc.ca/400d.asp?id=1-68-93-448

Leonard Cohen: I would change my name to and get a tattoo.

Berle Fox: Where?

Leonard Cohen: There's this place on St. Laurence Bouleverd.

This is a great interview.

"O tangle of matter and ghost"

That's the best description of the human condition I've ever come across!

"Have I carved enough my Lord?" - "Child you are bone" is one of the deepest lyrics I have heard.
Or most of the lyrics from Who By Fire send shivers through my soul.

"and thanks for the trouble you took from her eyes. I thought it was there for good so I never tried".

Absolutely amazing.....


Leonard is able to paint images on the soul that can generate feeling without literal understanding.

Just reflecting on people's chosen lines.
Many of the lines I would choose hold no literal meaning to me - and I don't necessarily try to interpret them - but can penetrate to a part of me that can sense the implications... the more vague the better....

(and to think that I studied biostatistics!)

many men have loved the bells you fastened to the reigns...


cheers

"We met when we were almost young"

"He's touched your perfect body with his mind"

"Forsaken, almost human, he sank beneath your wisdom like a stone"

"I was born like this, I had no choice. I was born with the gift of a golden voice."

"No, you cannot see, no you cannot see, no, you cannot seeeeeee my naked body!"

The last two always make me giggle.

Having reminded myself how much the three words “gentle this soul” convey over on another thread, I am was thinking about the power of just one line, or part of a line:


We are so lightly here


Take this longing


Show me slowly


the wild regret


I know from your eyes


the dove is never free



------------------------------

Diane

Hi Diane ~

I am very touched by your posting. Yes, it's so true how so few words can convey so much. Leonard knows the inspiration and art for doing this. Just reading those words brought such a feeling of peace.

~ Elizabeth

Thanks Elizabeth. Yes, he knows all right.

Take Care,

Diane