<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><font size="4">Hey Riantee and all Spirit Expressionists - yes, what a charming </font><span style="font-size:large">random </span><font size="4">Leonard Cohen poem with which to open our Pathwork class yesterday - hahahaha! His poem is called, Too Old. </font><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><font size="4">You know what's strange is I looked through that book while we were in class and couldn't find this poem again. Then, while on the phone later yesterday, I was talking to a poet friend in Minnesota, still trying to find this poem without success, and starting to wonder if I'd actually read it before class, if it even existed and/or had I switched dimensions altogether mid-stream! </font><span style="font-size:large">Jeez! Finally, I found it. </span></div><div><span style="font-size:large"><br></span></div><div><font size="4">I love your response poem! It steps into the dark frenzy that can often swirl around Cohen's crown with gentle steps and tender morsels of hope. Thanks for pleading so willingly with Leonard on our behalf. </font></div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><font size="4">Ironically, I found another of his poems (attached photo) called, My Redeemer, in the same book, Book of Longing. The photo is proof that it's still there! </font></div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><font size="4">~ Ed </font></div><div><span style="font-size:large"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size:large">Here are both poems - one embedded, the other attached: </span></div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><span style="font-size:large"> </span><a href="https://www.leonardcohenforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=351794&sid=02880f1cad3747548a8c0fe5f872de4c#p351794" style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12pt" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:18pt;color:black;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">Too Old</span></a><font size="4"><br></font></div><p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:18pt;color:black"></span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:black"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:black">I’m too old<br>
to learn the names<br>
of the new killers<br>
This one here<br>
looks tired and attractive<br>
devoted, professorial<br>
He looks a lot like me<br>
when I was teaching<br>
a radical form of Buddhism<br>
to the hopelessly insane<br>
In the name of the old<br>
high magic<br>
he commands<br>
families to be burned alive<br>
and children mutilated<br>
He probably knows<br>
a song or two that I wrote<br>
All of them<br>
all the bloody hand bathers<br>
and chewers of entrails<br>
and scalp peelers<br>
they all danced<br>
to the music of the Beatles<br>
they worshipped Bob Dylan<br>
Dear friends<br>
there are few of us left<br>
silenced<br>
trembling all the time<br>
hidden among the blood -<br>
stunned fanatics<br>
as we witness to each other<br>
the old atrocity<br>
the old obsolete atrocity<br>
that has driven out<br>
the heart's warm appetite<br>
and humbled evolution<br>
and made a puke of prayer</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0in 0.5in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:black"><br>
~ Leonard Cohen</span><span style="font-size:16pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;color:black"><br>
</span><i><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;color:black">(Pg.
79 in Book of Longing)</span></i><i><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black"></span></i></p></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Apr 26, 2023 at 2:52 PM Riantee Rand via Thespiritexpress <<a href="mailto:thespiritexpress@lists.mcn.org" target="_blank">thespiritexpress@lists.mcn.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">To Ed Baldinger</p><p class="MsoNormal">What is the title of Cohen’s song you read yesterday?<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Here is my answer to him:<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Plea to Leonard Cohen<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Hey Cohen, <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">you take us on a journey we all dread,<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">the journey of the deads<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">uncovering <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">all of our darkest darkness,
<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">in the midst of all the shards<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">of all the masks <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">we projected,<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">having to face <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">all the fabricated pictures of ourselves<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">we sent friends and family<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">now blown apart<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">by the blast<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">that exposes<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">all the pretense <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">the self-glorification<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">the self-congratulation. . .<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Yes Leonard<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">you do expose our blackest archetypal passions<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">hidden and silent or expressed,<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">passions with the most colorful disguises though<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">––costumes of feathers, flowers, fluff and beads, <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">those passions that created the world,<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">that were there since the very the beginning,<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">the archetypes we were formed after<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">and that we never really were able to escape,<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">passions expressed in dramas, sagas or tragedies,<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">shameless lusts, uncontrolled appetites, frenzied rages. . .<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">It is a real spiritual cleansing you take us through <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Leonard my friend,<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">excruciating, <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">agonizing, <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">fearful<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">certainly a useful exposure <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">but please, </p><p class="MsoNormal">allow redemption to take place,<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">let us reach the other side purified,<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">free of sins, <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">free of failure, <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">free of mistakes, <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">permit us to start again <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">new, opened, trusting and accepting<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">fearless, <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">forgiven, <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">forgiving<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">radiant and ready to face the light!<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Please Leonard<u></u><u></u></p>
<span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">let us get there!</span></div>_______________________________________________<br>
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