Title: Book of Longing
Author: Leonard Cohen
Source: Veddma library
ISBN: 978-0-7710-2229-6
Available online
Notes: Leonard Cohen has the ability to engulf me in a sweet sadness of “pining for the fjords”. He brings me back to the narrow streets of Montreal in summer, branching out in metal staircases connected to outside of the buildings, intertwined with people’s explorations, discoveries, and grief. The smell of adventure, uncertainty, and possibilities of years past, the introspection on a park bench in early evening. Few poets that write in English can so consistently play my strings. And with knowing motherhood, more words of his reach me.
Mother Asleep
remembering my mother
at a theatre in Athens
thirty
thirty-five years ago
a revue by Theodorakis
those great songs
she fell asleep
in the chair beside mine
in the open-air theatre
she had arrived that day
from Montreal
and the play started
close to midnight
and she slept through
the mandolins
the climbing harmonies
and the great songs
I was young
I hadn’t had my children
I didn’t know how far away
your love could be
I didn’t know
how tired you could get
[Leonard Cohen]