Books by Leonard Cohen
POETRY
l.et Us Compare ,\Iythologies ( l!J'Jli)
Tht' Sp!ct:-Box of Earth ( l!Jii 1)
Flower.< for Hitln (19G1)
Paw.1ites of 1/cm>cr/ (l!JGG)
F I CT I Of\
The Favorite Game (1!)li3)
Iletllttiful Lose1.1 ( 1 �)fiG)
L EONARD CO H EN
S E L ECT ED PO E M S
1956 1968
The Vil<ing Press
New Yori<
Copyright © 1964, 1966, •g68 by Leonard Cohen
Copyright in all countries of 1he International Copyright Union
All rights reserved
First published in 1968 in a hardbound
edition and a Viking Compass edition by
The Viking Press, Inc.,
625 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022
Library of Congress catalog card number: 68-22317
PRINTED IN U .S. A .
Some of these poems were previously published
by The Viking Press, Inc., in a volume entitled
The Spice-Box of Earth. "This Is for You" first
appeared in Mademoiselle. Other poems first appeared in Queen's Quarterly, Prism, Saturday Review, Pan-ic, The McGill Chapbook, and
Tamarack Review. Most of the poems have appeared in volumes published in Canada by Mc
Clelland &: Stewart Limited.
Second printing July 1 g68
Contents
I. Let Us Compare Mythologies
For Wilf and His House
:;
Prayer for Messiah
4
The Song of the Hellenist
5
The Sparrows
7
City Christ
8
Song of Patience
9
When This American Woman
ro
Song
II
These Heroics
I 2
Lovers
I)
The Warrior Boats
r4
Letter
I6
Pagans
I8
Song
20
Prayer for Sunset
2r
Ballad
23
Saint Catherine Street
24
Ballad
26
Summer Night
28
The Flier
29
Poem
:;o
The Fly
:;o
Warning
)I
Story
)2
Beside the Shepherd
33
I v
II. The Spice-Box of Earth
A Kite Is a Victim
37
The Flowers That I Left in the Ground
38
Gift
39
There Are Some Men
40
You All in White
4r
I Wonder How Many People in This City
42
Go by Brooks
4 3
To a Teacher
44
I Have Not Lingered in European Monasteries
45
It Swings, .Jocko
46
Credo
48
You Have the Lovers
50
Owning Everything
52
The Priest Says Goodbye
54
The Cuckold's Song
56
Dead Song
57
My Lady Can Sleep
58
Travel
59
I Have Two Bars of Soap
6o
Celebration
6r
Beneath My Hands
62
As the Mist Leaves No Scar
63
I Long to Hold Some Lady
64
Now of Sleeping
65
Song
67
Song
68
For Anne
68
Last Dance at the Four Penny
69
Summer Haiku
70
Out of the Land of Heaven
7I
vi
Prayer of My Wild Grandfather
72
Isaiah
73
The Genius
76
Lines from My Grandfather's Journal
78
III. Flowers for Hitler
What I'm Doing Here
87
The Hearth
88
The Drawer's Condition on November 28, 196 1
8g
The Suit
go
Indictment of the Blue Hole
gi
I Wanted to Be a Doctor
92
On Hearing a Name Long Unspoken
93
Style
95
Goebbels Abandons His Novel and Joins the
Party
97
Hitler the Brain-Mole
g8
It Uses Us!
99
My Teacher Is Dying
Ioo
For My Old Layton
ro2
Finally I Called
ro3
The Only Tourist in Havana Turns His Thoughts
Homeward
ro4
Millennium
ro5
Alexander Trocchi, Public Junkie, Priez pour
Nous
Io8
Three Good Nights
I I I
On the Sickness of My Love
I I 3
For Marianne
II4
The Failure of a Secular Life
II5
My Mentors
II6
vii
Heirloom
I I7
The Project
rr8
Hydra 1 963
I20
All There Is to Know about Adolph Eichmann
I22
The New Leader
I2J
For E.J.P.
I24
A Migrating Dialogue
I25
The Bus
I28
The Rest Is Dross
I29
How the Winter Gets In
I 30
Propaganda
I 3 I
Opium and Hitler
IJ2
For Anyone Dressed in Marble
IJ4
Folk
IJ4
I Had It for a Moment
IJ5
Independence
IJ7
The House
I 38
The Lists
IJ9
Order
I40
Destiny
I42
Queen Victoria and Me
I4J
The New Step: A Ballet-Drama in One Act
I45
Winter Bulletin
I64
Why Did You Give My Name to the Police?
I65
The Music Crept by Us
I67
Disguises
I68
Lot
I7I
One of the Nights I Didn't Kill Myself
r72
Bullets
I7J
The Big World
I74
Front Lawn
I75
viii
Kerensky
176
Another Night with Telescope
178
IV. Parasites of Heaven
The Nightmares Do Not Suddenly
181
A Cross Didn't Fall on Me
182
So You're the Kind of Vegetarian
183
Nothing Has Been Broken
184
Here We Are at the Window
185
Clean as the Grass from Which
186
When I Paid the Sun to Run
187
I See You on a Greek Mattress
188
Suzanne Wears a Leather Coat
189
One Night I Burned the House I Loved
190
Two Went to Sleep
191
In the Bible Generations Pass . . .
192
Found Once Again Shamelessly Ignoring the
Swans . . .
193
When I Hear You Sing
194
He Was Lame
195
I Am Too Loud When You Are Gone
195
Somewhere in My Trophy Room . . .
196
You Know Where I Have Been
197
I Met a Woman Long Ago
198
I've Seen Some Lonely History
200
Snow Is Falling
201
Created Fires I Cannot Love
202
Claim Me, Blood, If You Have a Story
203
He Was Beautiful When He Sat Alone
204
I Am a Priest of God
207
In Almond Trees Lemon Trees
208
ix
Suzanne Takes You Down
209
Give Me Back My Fingerprints
21 r
Foreign God, Reigning in Earthly Glory
213
I Believe You Heard Your Master Sing
214
This Morning I Was Dressed by the Wind
2I6
I Stepped into an Avalanche
217
V. New Poems
This Is for You
221
You Do Not Have to Love Me
223
It's Just a City, Darling
224
Edmonton, Alberta, December 1966, 4 a.m.
225
The Broom Is an Army of Straw
226
I Met You
227
Calm, Alone, the Cedar Guitar
228
You Live Like a God
229
Aren't You Tired
230
She Sings So Nice
2JI
The Reason I Write
231
When I Meet You in the Small Streets
232
It Has Been Some Time
233
A Person
