Process and pinpoint what it was I needed to take away from each verse that struck within me something penetratingly deep and divine. Owning the text, I was able to take my time with it. Spurred by the loss of this influential artist, I began working my way through 'Selected Poems.' In spite of the length of most of the work, there is nothing brief about this collection. I placed them in my bag, took them home with me, and leafed through both volumes. Shortly before his death, I discovered some donated books of Cohen's poetry at the library. Indeed "Beat" is too tight a jacket to force Cohen into - these poems were built to last beyond the fashion of the time the were written in, and fifty years on have lost none of their relevance. He was secure enough to set off bombs of sentiment and romance - something the beats of the day had no courage for. His use of classical and historical allusions let it be known that intellegence and education were damn sexy. What seperated Cohen from his peers was his ability to write poems that transcended the immediate concerns of his immediate surroundings. He takes a black marker and writes CAVEAT EMPTOR on the wall. In a generation of con-men, he was the honest con-man.Ĭue the a grainy black and white film - Cohen, fully dressed in suit and tie, lies in the empty hotel bathtub. Leonard Cohen is an exception - even though he reaped as many rewards as anyone.
Most poets seemed more interested in the rewards of being a poet (not having to work for a living and easy access to sex and drugs) than they were in writing good poems. The poetry scene of fifties and sixties produced some of the most self-indulgent rubbish of the twentieth century.
Dig deeper and you'll find there is much more here. If it were possible to read with your eyes closed, then it would be easy to imagine oneself in a smokey sixties coffee house surrounded by black turtlenecked beatniks snapping their fingers in cool approval.
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