leonardcohenforum.com

Message To A Friend



I have done everything possible to settle those old accounts

you left unanswered in the wake of your passing.

You realized you would have to pay, but not in the amounts

that have been exacted from you without asking.

You accepted the consequences as an appropriate end

to your life of questionable impulses and desires.

I have done too little to provide balance or make amends

for those nights when I lived possessed by an obscene fire.


You burned every bridge behind you as a symbol of your will

to surge forward into life with little regard for tact.

I ravished worlds in your company, but appetite has left me ill,

devoted to lies and stories told so often they have become fact.

I summon you from the land of self where your tyranny grows,

blossoming in a manner that has chilled all witnesses to the bone.

I have done everything I can to spare you the numerous blows

one must endure for the more grievous sins you might seek to atone.

I could read this again and again...it has so much to offer.

Thanks for sharing

Pete

A hint of Auden?

A fine piece.

Hi J ~
Exceptionally profound and poignant piece of psychological insight and understanding.

Well done!

~ Makera

Hi J ~

Is this the same guy, whom you've written about before? The one you accompanied to bars? The bitter, self-destructive one?

~ Elizabeth

No, it's a different person.

Many people I have known share the "qualities" described
in that poem. however.

Frankly, I am surprised at the reaction this poem has gotten. I consider it very much a 'lesser effort'. But I have learned to expect as much from this board - work that I was sure would get a reaction, good or bad, didn't, and work I was sure was just 'filler' in the place of more meaningful work invariably recieved much more acclaim.

Chalk one up to cliche - an author is usually a poor judge of what he/she writes.

And as for the comment regarding a hint of Auden - I have pondered that simply because I have NEVER read Auden. I'm certainly aware who he is though, rest assured. And even mentioning something I wrote in the same breath as Auden is certainly noteworthy - and embarassing. Thank you, nonetheless.

My poetics, such as they are, seem rather grounded in the lyric. It comes to me that way most of the time. Any true talent I have is in prose. I would definitely enjoy a prose newsgroup here, or perhaps we can all adopt an attitude that allows whomever to post prose work here as well?