BOOK OF LONGING
Leonard Cohen Penguin NZ$28
These days I guess one thinks of Leonard Cohen more as a singer but when I first started bookselling way back in the late 60’s he was a best-selling poet and so I was delighted last week to be given a copy of his latest collection of verse which has the added bonus of being liberally illustrated by him.
Cohen is a phenomenon really. Can he really be 74 years of age? He has some 10 collection of verse published, (this is the first in 20 years), and two novels but of course is now best-known as a singer/song-writer with 17 albums to his name. Thousands of cover versions have been made of his original songs.
In 1994 he retreated to Mount Baldy Zen Centre in California where he spent five years in seclusion and was ordained as a Rinzai Bhuddist monk and took the Dharma name. Jikhan, meaning silence.
In 2001 he returned to music in collaboration with Sharon Robinson with a new album, Ten New Songs. There is much poetry and illsutration in Book of Longing that came out of his experience during his five years seclusion. Similarly some of the pieces in this book became lyrics for songs on the new album.
These days I guess one thinks of Leonard Cohen more as a singer but when I first started bookselling way back in the late 60’s he was a best-selling poet and so I was delighted last week to be given a copy of his latest collection of verse which has the added bonus of being liberally illustrated by him.
Cohen is a phenomenon really. Can he really be 74 years of age? He has some 10 collection of verse published, (this is the first in 20 years), and two novels but of course is now best-known as a singer/song-writer with 17 albums to his name. Thousands of cover versions have been made of his original songs.
In 1994 he retreated to Mount Baldy Zen Centre in California where he spent five years in seclusion and was ordained as a Rinzai Bhuddist monk and took the Dharma name. Jikhan, meaning silence.
In 2001 he returned to music in collaboration with Sharon Robinson with a new album, Ten New Songs. There is much poetry and illsutration in Book of Longing that came out of his experience during his five years seclusion. Similarly some of the pieces in this book became lyrics for songs on the new album.
Earlier this year the noted American composer Philip Glass collaborated with Cohen to produce a two hour concert work, Book of Longing, which was premiered at the Toronto Festival of Arts in June.
Cohen, of Jewish background, was born and educated in Canada, and in 2003 was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest civilian honour.
This is a most interesting and greatly varied collection of verse, some thoughtful and challenging, some hopeful and of course, as you’d expect from Cohen some pessimistic,
Some made me laugh, such as the following:
Never Once
India is filled
with many
exceptionally beautiful women
who don’t desire me
I verify this
every single day
as I walk around
The city of Bombay
I look into face after face
and never once
have I been wrong
The Lovesick Monk
I shaved my head
I put on robes
I sleep in the corner of a cabin
sixty-five feet up a mountain
It’s dismal here
The only thing I don’t need
is a comb
I shaved my head
I put on robes
I sleep in the corner of a cabin
sixty-five feet up a mountain
It’s dismal here
The only thing I don’t need
is a comb
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