leonardcohenforum.com

Let this be the beginning. What follows is retyped from Leonard Cohen: Prophet of the Heart, by L.S. Dorman & C.L. Rawlins (1990). Later, I'll try to add comments in green colour about poems that weren't included in the books - Dorman&Rawlins traced few, but there were more. I'll put that ones in red letters. It's worth mentioning that Dorman & Rawlins didn't list Leonard's three short stories here, and two another poems from the magazines, which never appeared in the books (all from 1960s).

So, in red letters are poems which were never included in the books. I'm using the unfinished Leonard Cohen Concordance, so there could be mistakes - simply write it, and we will edit the original listing.

ADDITION: titles in red letters but underlined are found and you can get it by emailing me. You can find the poems in this thread.

Works published in magazines and anthologies

Pre-1954
Two unpublished pieces at least have survived: an essay on the death of a fellow Montrealian ([C] 1951); and Leonard's Presidential Speech to the McGill Debating Society ([C] 1953/4).

1954
'An Halloween Poem To Delight My Younger Friends' (Òu Sont Les Jeunes?) and 'Poème en prose' in CIV/n, Montreal, vol iv, pp8, 13 respectively. (The latter was renamed 'Friends' in Let Us Compare Mythologies, included with the former.)

'Folk Song', 'Les Vieux', 'Satan In Westmount' in CIV/n, vol v, pp 11. (The first and third were all published in Let Us Compare Mythologies, the second had a significant change in the last two lines of the second verse; the original read 'spitting blood in crumpled handkerchiefs / twisting fingers against brittle years.')

'To Be Mentioned At Funerals', 'Just The Worse Time' in Forge, summer ed., p 52 (which added 'He composes poetry to the guitar').

1955
'For Wilf And His House' in Forge, Spring edn., p 26
[Included in Let Us Compare Mythologies, 1956]

'Sparrows' in CIV/n, vol vii, p 14
[Published as The Sparows in Let Us Compare Mythologies.]

'Two Sparrows: Thoughts Of A Landsman' was the title of his successful essay presented for the McNaughten Prize for Creative Writing, pp5. It is now housed in the Rare Books Collection of the MacLennen Library, McGill University. Five poems were offered: 'For Wilf And His House', 'Ste Catherine Street', 'Lord On Peel Street', 'The Story Of The Hellenist (to RK)', 'The Song Of The Hellenist to FK', 'Sparrows'. All but the third appeared in Let Us Compare Mythologies.

'Had We Nothing To Prove', 'The Fly', in Forge, Spring edn., p 43 (which commented thereby that Leonard had won the First Prize in the Daily Literary Contest).
[Both in Let Us Compare Mythologies]

1959
A Man Was Killed, a play in six acts, with Irving Layton; later published in Canadian Theatre Review, Spring 1977, pp 54-68. (They also wrote Up With Nothing, a play about 'hippiedom', and two or three other plays whose manuscripts are no longer in existence.)

1961
'My Mentors', 'For Marianne', 'Action', 'On The Sickness Of My Love', 'The First Vision' in Poetry 62, edited by Eli Mandel and Jean-Guy Pilon, Ryerson Press, Toronto, pp 91-94. The first two poems and fourth were published in Flowers For Hitler in 1964. (In 'My Mentors' the last two lines of the second verse were changed from 'They are inscribed with beautiful letters / which nobody can understand,' to a more explicit Judaic reference. In 'The First Vision' the scenario of his mother entertaining to dinner her father and her first and second husbands is offered: 'anguished at their ingratitude,' recalling a similar incident in The Favourite Game between Breavman and his mother.)

1966
'Les Vieux', 'Prayer For Sunset', 'The Bus' included in Poetry Of Our Time, ed by Louis Dudek, with a short introduction, MacMillan And Co Ltd of Canada, Toronto, pp xii plus 376.
[First two = Let Us Compare Mythologies, the third = Flowers For Hitler]

1967
'Out Of The Land Of Heaven. For Marc Chagall', 'The Genius', 'The Only Tourist In Havana Turns His Thoughts Homeward' in Modern Canadian Verse In English And French, ed by A.J.M. Smith, OUP, Toronto, pp xxvi plus 426.
[First two = The Spice-Box Of Earth. Third = Flowers For Hitler]

1969
'Elegy', 'Story', 'I Have Not Lingered In European Monasteries', 'You Have The Lovers', 'Now Of Sleeping', 'As The Mist Leaves No Scar', 'The Genius', 'Style', 'For EJP', 'The Music Crept By Us', 'Two Went To Sleep', 'Disguises' in G. Gedde's 20th Century Poets And Poetics, pp 374-383. It was reprinted in 1985, adding 'The Bus'.
[1-2 = Let Us Compare Mythologies, 3-7 = The Spice-Box Of Earth, 8-10, 12 = Flowers For Hitler, 11 = Parasites Of Heaven, The Bus = Flowers For Hitler]

This is what's printed in booklet of Montreal Event (2000):

Early Cohen: Short Story and Poetry. Finds from the 60’s
Traced, compiled and edited by Marie Mazur and Dick Straub

“Luggage Fire Sale”
originally published in Partisan Review, 36, No. 1 (Winter 1961), pp. 91-99; reprinted in Parallel, 1, No. 2, (May-June 1966), pp. 40-44.
[or it was published in Parallel, and reprinted in Partisan Review in 1969?]

“Barbers and Lovers”
originally published in Ingluvin, the Magazine of Canadian Writing, No. 2 (Jan-March 1961), pp. 10-19.

“Trade”
originally published in The Tamarack Review, No. 20 (Summer 1961), pp. 59-65.


POEMS
“Another Cherry Brandy”
originally published in Evidence, No. 3 (Fall 1961), p. 15.

“Song”
originally published in Exchange, 1, No. 1, (Nov. 1961), p. 24.

Good morning Tom,

I spent some time at The McGill Rare Books Division today and found some of the items on your list. I ordered photocopies which I will get today at lunch time (I work within walking distance of the McGill library). I'll be able to scan them to .pdf format and send them to you or Jarkko, as you please. I actually already have two of the short stories in .pdf. If you give me an e-mail address in a PM, I'll send them to you right away. The two storie are Luggage Fire Sale and Trade

Here is the list of what I've got:

POEMS

Action (in Poetry 62, 1961)

The First vision (in Poetry 62, 1961)

To be Mentioned at Funerals (in The Forge, 1954)

Just the Worse time (in The Forge, 1954)

Song (in Exchange 1961)


SHORT STORIES

Trade (in The Tamarak Review, 1961)

Luggage Fire Sale (in Partisan Review, 1969)
Note that the year for this one is 1969 and not 1961 as mentioned on your list.

Luggage Fire Sale (in Parallel, 1966)

I have all the McGill Librabry location numbers as well for those documents. Some of them were in either or both F. R Scott or Gustavson collections as we could expect. I'll tell you more about the collections in a PM if you whish.

I'll keep looking for the other titles still missing.
_____________________________________________

As appatizer, here is one of the poems

TO BE MENTIONED AT FUNERALS

Those days were just the twilight
And soon the poems and the songs
Were only associations
Edged with bitterness
Focused into pain
By paintings in a minor key
Remember on warm nights
When he made love to strangers
And he would struggle through old words
Unable to forget he once created new ones
And fumble at their breasts with broken hands

When finally he did become very old
And nights were cold because
No one was a stranger
And there was little to do
But sift the years through his yellow fingers
Then like fire-twisted shadows of dancers
Alternatives would array themselves
Around his wicker chair
And he regretted everything

From The Forge; McGill University Magazine; summer 1954; page 51.
__________________________________________

Hi Simon,

excellent, thank you very much! I received all three short stories, retyped into Word files (Marie & Dick's work), but I'd like to have the poems. I do have "Song" also. So, I'd appreciate very much if you can retype/scan the other poems. This corner is good place for that, or you can drop me an email.

----------------------------------------
ANOTHER CHERRY BRANDY
Leonard Cohen
originally published in Evidence, No. 3 (Fall 1961), p. 15.

Another cherry brandy
and I will propose
to the waitress,
who sets the glass before me -
holding it like a blossom -
with such grace
I know she is a Master
of Flower Arrangement.

O arrange me, Lady,
in this rainy November night.
Set my mind
in the arborite street
so that I catch
as easily as glistening tar
the neon of Peel & St. Catherine,
so that home-bound clubbers,
broke and angry with their girl-friends,
will clasp and wave me
for one last toast
to everything they know is true.

The first verse of this poem is absolutely priceless .


~ Lizzy

I tried to respect ponctuation, capitalisation and sentence divisions and all. But I can usually not be trusted though for copying and english spelling. I will proof read them again later when I get the copies from McGill.


Just The Worse Time

This year time was long between
..... old gardeners tending
..... black-yellow heaps of smouldering leaves
and smothering children
armoured in Red River coats and muffler turns ---
..... and so as nude girls discovered bathing,
..... striken, somehow unable to cover their breasts
the embarrassed trees fidgeted
in unsolicited sun.

We were embarrassed too.
prayed for great heavy drifts of snow
to cover trees and bare streets,
to heap on roofs of houses,
to swaddle mountains and waters ---

but the snow came thin,
covering the ground like cheap gauze,
clinging in tatters to the bark,
..... preserving footprints in the mud.

No. It could not come like an aristocrat,
like de Bergerac,
like a white waving plume,
..... as we prayed for
..... and will pray for
..... again.


from The Forge; McGill University Magazine;summer 1954; page 52

Action

The stars turn their noble stories,
turn their heroes upside down;
the moon, obsessed calm moth
pursues its private candle past the down---

All these marvels happen
while I keep silent on my love
and say nothing for her beauty.

How can I bear the gulls perfect orbit
round and round the hidden fish,
how can I watch the fled sun
seize and harden the ridge of rocks?

In this glory I am innocent!
I am empty of command!
I live in the world!

Distant face, like an icon’s
disciplined to tenderness,
my silence is for you
Emptiness creates the field
where innocent as dogs
we clash for the complete embrace.


From Poetry 62; 1961; page 92

THE FIRST VISION

Sitting mangled in their chairs
like the losers
at a Borgia banquet---

my grandfather
my father
my stepfather.

Mother in a corner of the dining-room,
ignorant of her power,
urging the corpses to eat---
Eat! Eat it all up!
I made it!

Anguished at their ingratitude;
half-chewed meat falling like caterpillars
on their old-fashioned vests.
She didn’t know
the roastbeef was poisoned..

It was the perfect cut
coveted by every family cook---
as it stewed it sucked,
it turned to juice the venom
lost in the air of the kitchen.

Still, Mother, still, still---
you’ll scream softer if you think
of the hungry children in India.
Don’t lean across the tablecloth.
Dont’t look in
these outwitted thankless eyes.


From Poetry 62; 1961; page 94

lizzytysh wrote:The first verse of this poem is absolutely priceless .

I agree. I was little dissapointed with the closing. But first verse, and the first wto lines of the second verse are quite stunning. I can feel that feeling;-)


"To be Mentioned At Funerals" is very good, very good. And surprising for the age he written it. - I need some time to absorb all this Thank you so much, Simon, what you have done is priceless

It seems I can't get the empty spaces in lines, so ignore the dots, I added them to signal how LC indented those two lines.
---------------------------------------

Song

I remember you, pretty frock.
I tore you from
...............a faultless body
twenty years ago.

I found you this morning
under the bed,
...............with the snapshot
of an old woman.

originally published in Exchange, 1, No. 1
(Nov. 1961), p. 24.

I know, I tried to juggle with spacing too, but couldn't figure out a way that would be aesthetically acceptable. The message body box does not seem to tolerate empty space at the begining of a line of text. So the poems above are not quite as the originals in the magazine which is a loss in a way as far as rythm goes. I'll re-edit them with the dots when I have a chance.

Tom and Simon,

What a tremendous project you guys have taken on. I've read much of this material, and it's incredible that you're just posting it. Maybe it should be in the main site? That way it will be archived for good. I guess, Jarkko could archive this thread???? As some of this older stuff surfaces, we certainly don't want to lose it.

It's almost like coming full circle. Leonard making new CDs, and arranging appearances, but he's getting on in age. And, then, out comes material from way back. In future, when people study/discover Leonard, maybe this is where they can begin.

Good going, and certainly appreciated by all Cohen fans, I'm sure.

Linda.

Congratulations, Linda !!! One exclamation mark for each 1,000 !!!

It's wonderful to see you back here !
It's wonderful to see you more active !!
It's wonderful to see you posting at greater length and depth !!!

I'm still enjoying your asides and cleverness ~ yet, I am enjoying immensely the extent of your explorations and commentary !!! I've been thinking that a lot, lately, but hadn't noticed your numbers. Thanks for bringing them the attention they deserve!!!
If you just happen to have more time now, I must say you're using it well ~ keep on keepin' on !! Wishing you thousands more...

Great comments on Tom and Jarkko ~ Soooo true !!! I agree .


All good things to you, Linda...


Love,
Lizzy

Oh, thanks, Lizzy. All good things to you, as well. The numbers are of no importance to me, I've probably been sitting at close to 3,000 for months and months, but just wasn't into visiting. But, with Leonard's and Anjani's projects taking off, I've been interested to see what happens.

Also, I've been interested in the old 'archival' kind of material. Just when you think you 'know' Leonard, there's always another layer beneath. He is a fascinating individual, both stylistically, and, we have to admit it, on a personal level. His very rich and active life is likely the muse for his work. So, the two really go together. His genius, and his 'gypsy boy' life.

Tom, here, has always, since I made my first tentative post, been active in the collection of, the knowledge of, and the sharing of all that is Leonard. I think he was one of the first to 'show' me the board. His contribution has been so consistently first class. So, yesterday, when I looked, I wondered what's this? 2999??? At first I thought it was the date I joined, then it hit me. Ah! And what better place to leave it, but here, where it all started, in the beginning ....

Thanks again,
Linda.

Also, I've been interested in the old 'archival' kind of material. Just when you think you 'know' Leonard, there's always another layer beneath. He is a fascinating individual, both stylistically, and, we have to admit it, on a personal level. His very rich and active life is likely the muse for his work. So, the two really go together. His genius, and his 'gypsy boy' life.

~ Particularly, "Just when you think you 'know' Leonard, there's always another layer beneath. He is a fascinating individual, both stylistically, and, we have to admit it, on a personal level." His muse may always remain a mystery for me, however... though his very rich and active life are unassailable, his genius and the variety of his experience, as well. Still... give me all those experiences and I couldn't write like that. Are muses attracted to genius? Perhaps... Mystery to me.


~ Lizzy