letter in financial times from patrick m dransfield
Posted: Fri May 23, 2025 12:50 pm
Letter: Cohen was a great poet, not just a gloomy songsmith
From Patrick M Dransfield, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Leonard Cohen in 1980 © Evening Standard/Getty Images
Published MAY 17 2025
letter in the financial times - ft.com.
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While Timothy Garton Ash (“Brace for disorder as the great global power shifts begin”, Opinion, May 10) is to be congratulated on providing a fine exposition of this present, fragmented world, an accurate critic of the late Leonard Cohen’s poetry he is not.
Far from being merely “gloomy” and “melancholy”, Cohen was a feminist and a cynic in the true sense, believing that personal freedom was secured by means of self-discipline since we humans are vulnerable and perverted through our emotions and desires: “And none of us deserving the cruelty and the grace.”
But Cohen also articulated hope in this broken world, as in his song “Anthem” (There is a crack . . . in everything: That’s how the light gets in). Or “Come Healing”(And let the heavens hear it, The penitential hymn, Come healing of the spirit, Come healing of the limb), one of the many songs gifted to us by this astounding poet. Repeating it helps me get through my day.
Patrick M Dransfield
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
https://irglobal.com/article/patrick-m- ... -emirates/
From Patrick M Dransfield, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Leonard Cohen in 1980 © Evening Standard/Getty Images
Published MAY 17 2025
letter in the financial times - ft.com.
--------------
While Timothy Garton Ash (“Brace for disorder as the great global power shifts begin”, Opinion, May 10) is to be congratulated on providing a fine exposition of this present, fragmented world, an accurate critic of the late Leonard Cohen’s poetry he is not.
Far from being merely “gloomy” and “melancholy”, Cohen was a feminist and a cynic in the true sense, believing that personal freedom was secured by means of self-discipline since we humans are vulnerable and perverted through our emotions and desires: “And none of us deserving the cruelty and the grace.”
But Cohen also articulated hope in this broken world, as in his song “Anthem” (There is a crack . . . in everything: That’s how the light gets in). Or “Come Healing”(And let the heavens hear it, The penitential hymn, Come healing of the spirit, Come healing of the limb), one of the many songs gifted to us by this astounding poet. Repeating it helps me get through my day.
Patrick M Dransfield
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
https://irglobal.com/article/patrick-m- ... -emirates/
