I’d cook for her, I’d pour her tea
She was in her thirties then
had made some money, lived with men
We’d lay us down to give and get
beneath the white mosquito net
And since no counting had begun
we lived a thousand years in one
The candles burned, the moon went down
the polished hill, the milky town
transparent, weightless, luminous,
uncovering the two of us
on that fundamental ground,
where love’s unwilled, unleashed, unbound
and half the perfect world is found
CHEATER
I cheat when I make love
She thinks it’s great
She shows me stuff
that you’d only show
to a cheater
THE FLOOD
The flood it is gathering
Soon it will move
Across every valley
Against every roof
The body will drown
And the soul will break loose
I write all this down
But I don’t have the proof
– Sinai, 1973
Index of Titles / drawings, first lines
a private gaze 96
Alexandra Leaving 60
All My News 42
Alone at Last 173
angry at 11 pm 134
Another Christopher 132
Another Poet 186
Anything Which Refers 176
Argument 130
back in montreal 172
Backyard 150
Basket 51
Beach at Kamini, The 80
Because of a Few Songs 208
Best, The 141
Better 11
Better to Be Lost 220
Body of Loneliness 40
Boogie Street 64
Book of Longing, The 1
but turn me on my side… 224
Butter Dish 129
By the Rivers Dark 53
Centre, The 218
Cheater 228
Cigarette Issue, The 71
Clockwork 142
Cold, The 84
Collapse of Zen, The 19
Correct Attitude, The 157
Cross, The 123
Darkness Enters, The 182
Dear Diary 83
dear roshi… 23
Delay 101
Disturbed This Morning 39
Drunk Is Gender-Free, The 143
During the Day 81
Dusko’s Taverna 1967 75
Early Morning at Mt. Baldy 21
Early Questions 45
Even Now 185
Even Some of My Own 166
Faith, The 198
Faithless Wife, The 147
falling in love with you 118
First of All 122
Flood, The 229
Flow, The 194
Food Tastes Good 48
for all my art… 155
Fun 49
furthermore, you do not have… 203
Go Little Book 216
Goal, The 153
Good Germans 94
Gravity 212
Great Divide, The 191
Great Event, The 108
Half the World 226
Her Friend 188
Here It Is 199
His Master’s Voice 3
Historic Claremont Village 38
Hospitality 217
How Could I Have Doubted 106
I Am Now Able 193
i believe that you are standing… 52
i copied time 223
i guess it’s better to start a war 189
I Miss My Mother 72
i never found the girl 35
I Wrote for Love 89
If I Could Help You 95
if you are young… 59
If You Knew 88
Inside Our Love 221
Irving and Me at the Hospital 205
It Seemed the Better Way 190
Jana Thinks of John 177
jikan who pretended to be a poet… 184
just to have been one of them… 36
Kitchen Table 211
Laughter in the Pantheon 82
Layton’s Question 87
Leaving Mt. Baldy 22
Letters, The 209
Life of Errands, A 66
Limited Degree, A 65
Looking Away 165
Looking Through My Dreams 179
Lorca Lives 90
Love Itself 54
Lovesick Monk, The 13
Luckiest Man in the World, The 24
Magic Cure, A 85
Medicine 17
Mercy Returns Me 91
Mission 68
Mist of Pornography, The 98
monk’s head, artist’s proof 27
Montreal Afternoon 102
Moon, The 46
Moving Into a Period 34
Much Later 131
My Baby Wasn’t There 74
My Consort 37
my guitar… 195
My Life in Robes 2
My Mother Asleep 137
My Mother Is Not Dead 139
My Redeemer 121
My Time 178
Need the Speed 105
Never Mind 144
Never Once 162
Nightingale 146
Not a Jew 158
Note to the Chinese Reader, A 196
Now In My Room 181
oh and one more thing 167
Old Automat on 23rd St., The 77
On the Path 120
One of My Letters 5
one of those days… 116
only one thing made him happy… 210
Opened My Eyes 156
Other Writers 15
Pardon Me 187
paris again… 78
Paris Sky, The 109
Party Was Over Then Too, The 25
pretending to dig in 227
Promise, A 202
Puerto Rican Song, A 63
Puppets 160
Reading to the Prime Minister 104
Religious Statues 69
Remote, The 97
Report to R.S.B. 204
Robert Appears Again 138
Roshi 16
Roshi at 89 4
Seisen Is Dancing 33
Separated 133
Shirley 140
sit still… 206
So Do You 180
Something from the Early Seventies 125
soon there will be no one… 214
Sorrows of the Elderly 171
S.O.S. 1995 7
Split 58
Stanzas for H.M. 113
still looking at the girls… 207
Story Thus Far, The 110
stunned and still not suffering 174
Suggestions 183
Sun, The 213
Sweet Time 47
Sweetest Little Song, The 111
Takanawa Prince Hotel Bar 31
taxes children lost pussy… 175
the face can be composed… 41
the inner sweetness of the man… 117
the lamp in room 3 225
the promise of a youthful shirt 100
the road is too long 215
the truth of the line… 86
There for You 201
There Is a Moment 145
these portraits are far behind my… 62
Thing 112
Third Invention, The 136
this book will begin to speak… 119
This Is It 28
this is the best way to do it 164
This Isn’t China 30
this mood has nothing to do with you 161
Thousand Kisses Deep 56
Thousands 73
Tired 124
Titles 159
To a Young Nun 14
Too Old 79
Tradition, The 92
Travelling Light #31 149
True Self 18
Unbecoming 76
vibrant, but dead 152
Voice Dictating in a Plane Over Europe 107
we are not convinced… 50
we will all be airbrushed 128
we will not be staying… 197
What Baffled Me 169
What Did It 70
When I Drink 9
When I Went Out 151
Who Do You Really Remember 163
Why I Love France 115
Wind Moves, The 170
Wish Me Luck 67
Work in Progress 154
worried of course. 200
You Are Right, Sahara 44
you don’t want to go out any more 135
You Have Loved Enough 55
You’d Sing Too 6
Your Heart 168
Your Relentless Appetite for New Perspectives 219
Acknowledgments
Many of these poems and drawings first appeared in The Leonard Cohen Files (www.leonardcohenfiles.com), a remarkable website out of Finland mastered by Jarkko Arjatsalo, with the technical assistance of his son Rauli. I am deeply grateful to the Arjatsalo family, and to the webmasters Marie Mazur, Tomislav Sakic, and Patrice Clos for their extraordinary efforts on behalf of my work.
Some of the pieces in this book became lyrics for songs that Sharon Robinson and I wrote and sang together. They can be heard on the Sony CD called Ten New Songs.
The Walrus magazine, out of Toronto, graciously published some poems and drawings, as did Oris, out of Zagreb, with Croatian translations.
I heard many interesting and precise ideas, which later I blurred into verse, while in the precious company of Kyozan Joshu Roshi, and Ramesh S. Balsekar. Their compelling concepts were so imperfectly grasped that I cannot be accused either of stealing or absorbing them.
I thank my editors in Toronto and New York, Ellen Seligman and Dan Halpern, for the wide
