![]() ![]() Slightly too many of them are tiny Zen squibs, thin and precious if sometimes surprising ("The road is too long/ the sky is too vast/ the wandering heart/ is homeless at last"). So can we go back to thinking of him as a Real Poet?īook of Longing is a collection of 150 poems and song lyrics mostly written on Mount Baldy, California, where he has spent 12 years as a Buddhist monk. Cohen was a published poet in Montreal long before he picked up a guitar in 1967. His best work ("It's coming like the tidal flood beneath the lunar sway,/ Imperious, mysterious, in amorous array,/ Democracy is coming to the USA") has a verbal rhythm that owes nothing to the musical backing - and since the old groaner's voice seldom extended beyond four notes, it hardly counts as singing. ![]() Leonard Cohen has always been at the centre of the debate about whether song lyrics can ever be considered poetry. ![]()
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