BOOK OF LONGING
(DEAR READER)
I can´t make the hills
The system is shot
I´m living on pills
for which I thank G-d
There´s sun in the leaves
and birds in the tree.
Nobody believes
it´s written by Thee.
I used to be song
I used to be cock
but time is long gone
past my laughingstock
I bid you good-bye
There´s nothing to add
I´ve tried and I try
to stop going mad
I followed the course
from chaos to art
My dick was the horse
my life was the cart
I´m back at my desk
(the end of the line)
a bee in my breast
a snake in my spine
The silverware shines
that my mother left
to me when she died
fulfilled and bereft
My leash is too long
I think that I´m free
I´d leap at the young
but I´m sixty-three
I know what I want
It took many lives
I´m cured by the cunt
I´m killed by the eyes
The sorrows are real
as froth on the wave
as shit on the beach
the city´s disgrace
Who cares what I say
I´m not who I was
I´m paid what I pay
I´m always in love
The summer won´t come
´till I go to bed
The birds will return
when the dog is dead
You can´t say it right
when you touch yourself
But truth´s not advice
It is total health
The crap on my back
the piss in my face
but happy at last
in the Holy Place
You can´t go too deep
if you want to swim
where the mermaids weep
out of love for Him
I`m nothing but lust
I´m nothing but pain
I did these mistrust
but Never Again
I say what I want
for I am the Child
of G-d coming home
and His Wife gone wild
I don´t need a thing
I use what I have
a moth-eaten wing
a worm cut in half
With these I invoke
The Name to draw nigh
I´m clamped in a stock
to hold my head high
My animal howls
My angel´s upset
And deep in my bowels
the shit of regret
You can´t stop a man
from loving too much
I´m still licking stamps
from trying it once
My pen is too wet
My ink is too black
The Winner won´t get
his foot on the track
But the one like me
with light in her eye
is utterly free
to crawl or to fly
And she´ll know the path
I carved through the pain
my will cut in half
and Freedom between
I´ll meet her one day
when the time is right
for me to display
my flare in the night
for the space in space
to cough up the Word
that seals our Embrace
unharmed and unheard
And Mercy at last
for one doubled up
and tied to the mast
with the flags of love
And thank´s be to you
for helping me out
when Youth had no clue
what´s it all about
Your kindness is kind
your trueness is true
I pray that you´ll find
your Beloved, too
as I have found mine
where I´d never look:
in the threaded spine
of my Longing Book.
Los Angeles
March 22, 1998
Copyright © 1998 by Leonard Cohen. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
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