[Thespiritexpress] Leonard Cohen's poem

[Ed Balldinger]

Hey Riantee and all Spirit Expressionists - yes, what a charming random Leonard
Cohen poem with which to open our Pathwork class yesterday - hahahaha!  His
poem is called, Too Old.

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!  Jeez!  Finally, I found it.

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.

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!

~ Ed

Here are both poems - one embedded, the other attached:

 Too Old
<https://www.leonardcohenforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=351794&sid=02880f1cad3747548a8c0fe5f872de4c#p351794>



I’m too old
to learn the names
of the new killers
This one here
looks tired and attractive
devoted, professorial
He looks a lot like me
when I was teaching
a radical form of Buddhism
to the hopelessly insane
In the name of the old
high magic
he commands
families to be burned alive
and children mutilated
He probably knows
a song or two that I wrote
All of them
all the bloody hand bathers
and chewers of entrails
and scalp peelers
they all danced
to the music of the Beatles
they worshipped Bob Dylan
Dear friends
there are few of us left
silenced
trembling all the time
hidden among the blood -
stunned fanatics
as we witness to each other
the old atrocity
the old obsolete atrocity
that has driven out
the heart's warm appetite
and humbled evolution
and made a puke of prayer


~  Leonard Cohen
*(Pg. 79 in Book of Longing)*

On Wed, Apr 26, 2023 at 2:52 PM Riantee Rand via Thespiritexpress <
thespiritexpress at lists.mcn.org> wrote:

>
>
> To Ed Baldinger
>
> What is the title of Cohen’s song you read yesterday?
>
> Here is my answer to him:
>
>
>
> Plea to Leonard Cohen
>
>
>
> Hey Cohen,
>
> you take us on a journey we all dread,
>
> the journey of the deads
>
> uncovering
>
> all of our darkest darkness,
>
> in the midst of all the shards
>
> of  all the masks
>
> we projected,
>
> having to face
>
> all the fabricated pictures of ourselves
>
> we sent friends and family
>
> now blown apart
>
> by the blast
>
> that exposes
>
> all the pretense
>
> the self-glorification
>
> the self-congratulation. . .
>
>
>
> Yes Leonard
>
> you do expose our blackest archetypal passions
>
> hidden and silent or expressed,
>
> passions with the most colorful disguises though
>
> ­­­­­­––costumes of feathers, flowers, fluff and beads,
>
> those passions that created the world,
>
> that were there since the very the beginning,
>
> the archetypes we were formed after
>
> and that we never really were able to escape,
>
> passions expressed in dramas, sagas or tragedies,
>
> shameless lusts, uncontrolled appetites, frenzied rages.  . .
>
>
>
> It is a real spiritual cleansing you take us through
>
> Leonard my friend,
>
> excruciating,
>
> agonizing,
>
> fearful
>
> certainly a useful exposure
>
> but please,
>
> allow redemption to take place,
>
> let us reach the other side purified,
>
> free of sins,
>
> free of failure,
>
> free of mistakes,
>
> permit us to start again
>
> new, opened, trusting and accepting
>
> fearless,
>
> forgiven,
>
> forgiving
>
> radiant and ready to face the light!
>
>
>
> Please Leonard
> let us get there!
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