Leonard Cohen on Mt Baldy

[Jimmy O'Connell]

I wrote this poem a few years ago. I found it very intriguing to realise and reflect on the fact that someone like Leonard Cohen, such a famous, well known figure, would decide to spend so many years in a monastery. This poem was written as an expression of my reflections.

Leonard Cohen on Mt Baldy.
Imagine him zen stooped,
a brittle dawn belittled
by night; his Spanish guitar
silenced, as mantra, locus
of his engagement; each hour
cartographed with the minute
journeys of imagination.

Adobes of meditation
become the kiln of his song.

Seeped in tones of desperation
yet, though broken, its strings strum the
lineaments of the soul. Image him,
zen stilled, longing his song through
another brittle dawn.

[grace]

yes.

[lizzytysh]

Hi Grace and Jimmy ~

I'm glad you resurrected these lovely images, Grace. I was still gone when this imagination was posted and I've only just now read it. I, too, have wondered and imagined as I've thought of Leonard on Mt. Baldy for so long, Jimmy. Have you seen the videos of Stina's interviews of him there? The interviews are both interesting and wonderful. I really like the images you've provided here.

Thanks again, Grace.


~ Lizzy

[grace]

Dear Lizzy: Thank you for your kind appreciation. Where do I find such a gem?

[tomsakic]

I read this poem in Cafe Stresemann in Berlin, it was in Jimmy's copy of Stranger Music I missed its posting here as I was out the whole August. Thank you for resurecting it, indeed:-) It is really great, it's nice to have it in written now. It's always bad to read the poem in front of its author, so I can appreciate it now in silence...

[Jimmy O'Connell]

Yes, I've seen the interview with Stina on Mt Baldy on the Biography channel... great insight into a humble, yet a person of deep spiritual self confidence.

Jimmy