Interview with Leonard Cohen - This Man Knows About Love

This isn't the first time I have blogged about Leonard Cohen. (Go here to see my other posts), having said that, I must comment on an interview I listened to yesterday which was broadcast (into my ear buds) at the same time on CBC Radio 1 as I was trucking around Luminato. I have put on his "Live in London" DVD this morning while I write this blog and I am again reminded what a great artist he is. The interview made it clear to me that he is also a wise and sensitive man.

I wanted to present some of, what were for me, highlights of the interview.

On Love

He spent some time talking about love and the songs inspired by or written for women - of which there are many. He said (I paraphrase)

Love is the most challenging activity humans get into - Love - we have the sense that we can't live without love ... but the possibilities for humiliation and failure are ample... The heart is always softening or hardening, there is no jackpot, either you have the courage despite the significant defeats we accumulate over our lives- if we can continue and do not close down - then the possibilities are always there (for other loves to follow) ... women and men are at the core of each other - most men and women cherish some sort of dream of surrender - total love - sometimes experiencing defeat, sometimes acceptance and sometimes exaltation. It is the accumulation of defeats that is the inhibitor and those that are able not to close down are lucky. It is how we react when the love is lost that gives us the capacity to love again.

The last sentence is mine, but I think that is what he was getting at and left unsaid. That is why when we were young, maybe I only speak for the feminine side of the equation, we feel so devastated when love was lost or we just did not have anyone to love at a point in time in our lives. After time you realize you can recover from love lost and you can love again you are less shaken by its loss. I do not believe you can successfully seek out and find someone to love, I believe in fate and destiny on this one - however, you need to be open to it, not closed otherwise you will not be receptive to it when the seeds are planted.

I have learned to find joy in both solitude and also in the company of friends. I have a network of close friends which gives me the confidence to weather those years that I am without a "significant other". However that does not mean that I am alone out of choice or because I have given up and decided it is not for me... Just that I am happy and busy sufficiently that I don't think about such things - I am not frantically searching. Those in between time periods may be many years or as I approach old age even a decade or more, so it is important to cultivate an emotional self sufficiency as much as it is to establish a financial self sufficiency. I purposefully do that.

On "Forever More" Relationships

Does Leonard regret not having a life long partner? He responded to this question with a song in French - but it is clear he has no regrets... however, I suspect he is a bit wistful - as I am - that it wasn't to be. Perhaps my Montreal friend will help me here if he listens to the interview and tells me what the song means at 19:28 seconds into the interview.

Even though I do not count on having one, I still believe old age would be nicer if there were a "significant other" to share life's events with. The difference now is that I know that I can still be happy without a partner - it is just be a different sort of happiness, still with passion and love, even as I grow old I expect. However, I am no longer thinking in terms of someone I would be with "til death do us part".

On Dark Times

For someone who has written so many somber ballads, and who has suffered from clinical depression for extended periods of time, Leonard, in his mid 70s, has developed an extremely circumspect attitude. He is clearly happy with where he is in life and cognizant of where he has been on life's journey. At one point he was asked about "his darkest hour". His response was telling. He said, "Nothing comes to mind". He didn't think he ever had a "darkest hour", that one needed to put this in perspective; not compared with the suffering of others that goes on ... when you hear about people dodging bombs, having their nails pulled out in dungeons and starving...

Leonard - You Are My Man
The most striking thing about Leonard from this interview, aside from his astuteness and circumspect attitude, is that he is a most modest and humble person. I was also struck by his manner of speaking as it was so careful and respectful of those listening. When discussing the awards and accolades that Leonard has received over his lifetime, he responded that yes there had been an award or two and more importantly the critics have been kind, but that his work is really not a big seller.

At one point the interviewer, Jian Ghomeshi, comments that Leonard's house (the interview was at Leonard Cohen's home in Montreal), is a very modest home. Leonard's response was that he liked to live simply, but that wasn't a virtue. As I have said before, Leonard Cohen, you are my man.

The Leonard Cohen interview is available on You Tube as a CBC "Q TV Presentation". The interview is 40 minutes in length if you care to see it in its entirety.




As I listen to the Live in London DVD, I am reminded that the favourite part of this music DVD is not any of the songs - and they are all the best of the best of Cohen - it is the track where Leonard recites his poem "A Thousand Kisses Deep". This poem is in my opinion right up there with Suzanne. It speaks to me volumes and for those of us who have loved (I would presume most of us) and for those of us who are in love, whether requited or not or even if ill conceived, I am sure that it speaks to you as well.


If you are interested in podcasts of this and other Q interviews Go Here I think most of them are also available on You Tube as a Q TV Video.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

It is appropriate that we ended April with pouring rain. We received 24 mm of rain on Thursday tongue in cheek, I saw someone twitter “Toronto is looking a lot like New Orleans after the flooding”. We have had a few rainy days this week and the grass where I walk Bella is covered in inches of water. OK, bring on the flowers!

May Day
Is it May already? I received my annual announcement from Susan this morning, who every year reminds all us friends what the good weather starting in May means to everybody. Actually, her note brings back memories, but I think I have gotten past the May “2-4” camping weekends which were the harbinger of spring for me. Right of passage for our teens here is to go camping with friends that weekend, get drunk and *hmmm* need I say more? I will let others do this sort of stuff outside in the spring – I think I prefer to wait for summer to bake on a hot beach or have weekend long outdoor escapades. In the meantime, long walks, roller blading and nice outdoor patios are on my agenda!

We finished poetry month, but I can’t help but do one last blog on the topic. I was able to find a few minutes to catch up on my blog reading on Thursday night and as I was attempting to get through the ever growing list of bloggists I am following, I had to add two others I found mentioned within my “regulars”. This is a round about journey to the poetry topic, but bear with me, I will get there.

Visiting a Castle in Spain
First, let me put in a plug for My Castle in Spain. I am having a wonderful time with “virtual travel” by visiting various foreign websites. Since I have a great interest in doing the Camino in Spain in the next few years and am reading another blog On the Camino, which is a day by day account of one person’s Camino journey 2 years ago, I read the My Castle in Spain blog with great interest. She does a splendid job of describing the local culture, customs and everyday life which surrounds her. I enjoy her blog immensely. Hers contains many great local pictures, well framed and explained! It is like being on a guided tour which is handed out in 10 minute lumps every day or so in each blog. It was her blog which connected me to the Oia blog and caused a large sigh of jealousy to escape my lips.

Azure Seas and Blue and White Houses on the Hill
Oia is a village on the sea side of Santorini Island. The blog is called A Notebook about Life in Oia. It is a blog well worth exploring. I have some fond memories of things Greek and have listened to some first hand accounts of the beauty of Santorini.

Sadly, I never got to go there with my Greek, although his parents own a beach house on the Mediterranean a boat ride away. However I was bitten by the bug to go there some day and experience this beauty first hand. This blog brought back some wonderful memories of things Greek and is a very interesting site to visit because it documents the work these expats who are renovating a cave house in the side of the mountains. An interesting blog with beautiful postcard perfect scenery pictures.

I will go back to follow the progress and hopefully see the finished product of all their labours – along with the breathtaking photos of the azure blue waters, white and blue stucco homes and hillsides of green. I am sure their “cave” (not to mention Santorini island) would an idyllic place to live.

A Brief Stop with a Cuban In London
The second new blog I found was A Cuban in London. Whilst browsing through his site, I read the most wonderful poem, titled “kidnap poem”. It evoked some warm and fuzzy memories because of words used. Lilacs are my favourite flower and soon it will be lilac time. Words like “the beach” and “the sea” always cause a moan of desire to escape my lips. In its own way it is a very sensual poem. The linguistic imagery is so playful and laid back that the sensuality sneaks up on you. I was also very much grabbed by the content of the site itself. The visuals are stunning and attention grabbing and I saw several blog titles and some longer text content with interesting titles that will draw me back again when I have more time.

I have to thank the Cuban in London bloggist for finding such a wonderful poem. I am going to have to read more poems by this American poet.

Kidnap Poem by Nikki Giovanni

kidnap poem

ever been kidnapped by a poet
if i were a poet
i'd kidnap you
put you in my phrases and meter
you to jones beach
or maybe coney island
or maybe just to my house
lyric you in lilacs
dash you in the rain
blend into the beach
to complement my sea
play the lyre for you
ode you with my love
song anything to win you
wrap you in the red black green
show you off to mama
yeah if i were a poet
i'd kidnap you



According to Wiki:

Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni (born June 7, 1943) is a Grammy-nominated American poet, activist and author. Giovanni is currently a Distinguished Professor of English at Virginia Tech.[1]

looking at wiki it seems her most recent published work is - Bicycles: Love Poems (2009) (William Morrow) I wonder if this poem is in that book? I will have to find it.

Looking Forward to the Weekend!
I am composing my blog on Friday, although in interests of keeping to one blog per day, I am writing this in advance of my trip up north tonight and putting it out on auto-publish. I am going to sneak off from work early and go up to visit with my friends at GopherBrokeFarm and spend the night and then carry on to my Georgian Bay Shangri-La tomorrow. My folks are camping out there (figuratively) for the summer, until their new place is built and I have some work projects to discuss with my Dad! Got to love a Dad who likes work projects!

Not sure if I will be back late Saturday night or Sunday morning, but will get my next blog out on Sunday for sure!

[Posted with iBlogger from my way kool iPhone]

Another Blog in Support of Poetry Month

In yesterday's blog, I made a brief mention of my sister-in-law's "Poetry Event". I would have gone into that further, except I thought that it would make a good single topic blog and the one I had embarked on was already too long. Besides, I didn't want to start my discussion of poetry month by saying that my sister-in-law is a poet and so please buy her books... :)

However, having now said my general piece yesterday in support of Poetry Month, let me tell you about my brother's wife Ronda Wicks Eller, who runs a small poetry publishing house and is herself a published poet.

She and my brother live outside the small rural community of Clinton, ON. Last year, during Poetry Month she organized a poetry reading in the town and I was able to travel there to enjoy the Poets reading their work.

I did enjoy listening to the 6 featured poets and the 8 "open mic" poets who participated in the event. However, I found that I am a more appreciative of the conventional poetry and did find some of the poems that were "on the fringe", such as the sound poems, to be a bit too "out there" for me. (OK, so Charles Bernstein would sneer at me - but I hope my sister-in-law does not!) Having said that I enjoyed the afternoon immensely and so did my friend who attended with me. He was visiting from London England. He found some of the language references in the poetry to be bewildering and we talked about some of the differences in language all the way home.

Ronda's company, SkyWings Press has a web site and you can see it here along with a write up of the poetry event I spoke about and the poets she represents and the poetry collections you can purchase from her company.

You can read Ronda's bio here.

I will finish with a plug for her book of Poetry:

The Lion and the Golden Calf
by Ronda Eller,
84 pg, softcover, 2008 SkyWing Press
ISBN-13: 978-0-9809335-0-5

TO PURCHASE you can go to her websight and do so through the internet or send cheque or money order for $10 in Canadian funds to SkyWing Press, 37912 Jenkins Rd., RR2 Clinton, ON N0M 1L0. Be sure to include a full PRINTED (not handwritten) mailing address for shipment. Shipping is within 5 business days from receipt of your order.

Planetary Poetry Month

This month is "Planetary Poetry Month". I guess I am risking niche blogging by doing 2 "observances" blogs in a row, but I can't help it. I noticed a couple of blog worthy newspaper articles whilst researching the Earth Day blog and now I feel I must carry on to discuss Poetry month.

Firstly, let me go on record that I enjoy conventional poetry and can appreciate some of the more modern, "out there" pieces. I even have a few that I have written over the years. I own a number of books of poetry. Every so often I will find a poem that takes away my breath. I have even been to a couple of poetry readings - even discounting my Sister-in-law's Poetry Event last year. So I am happy to support Poetry Month and look with interest to read whats going on in the Poets corner during this month.

Truth is that during the month of April there is an abundance of Poetry events, publications and other goings on. There is value in these "flavour of the month" events to promote awareness as it causes lots of things of that sort to come to the surface on the appointed day or month. I have been reading all the poetry which has been published all month in the Globe in "The Other Words" blog.

She also pointed out in a recent blog regarding the Poetry Foundation's Site that Canada has more than the 3 poets listed (DAH!) . This site has biographies of poets from all parts of the world, organized in some sort of incoherent fashion (it lists areas like: New England, Africa, South-West, Canada and Britain!) and it seems that after doing comprehensive bios on British Poets (there are 53) they ran out of steam! Funny, because when you read their "about" it says: "The Poetry Foundation is one of the largest literary foundations in the world." You would think they would do a better job of promoting the famous poets in the world!


In my survey of things poetic I found an interesting essay by Charles Bernstein titled "Against National Poetry Month, As Such". This poet does not find poetry month to be kind to poets. "April is the cruelest month for poets" he writes. You can read his essay here.

To pique your interest:

As part of the spring ritual of National Poetry Month, poets are symbolically dragged into the public square in order to be humiliated with the claim that their product has not achieved sufficient market penetration and must be revived by the Artificial Resuscitation Foundation (ARF) lest the art form collapse from its own incompetence, irrelevance, and as a result of the general disinterest among the broad masses of the American People.

The motto of ARF's National Poetry Month is: "Poetry's not so bad, really."

He does have quite a few sour grapes and he is probably right - poetry for the masses will never be the leading edge of creative works as those are difficult for the masses to appreciate. I have to count myself right in there as I have difficulty with appreciation of both avant garde art and poetry. He might be right - but I do like more mainstream poetry and why be snobby and insist what I like is inferior. I don't snicker (much) when my daughter talks with glee about the burger she just had from MacDonalds!

I also found an interesting article relating to poetry was a critical article lambasting poetry critics for not being more helpful to the reader when reviewing poetry. Matthew Zapruder, in his essay "Show Your Work!" for Poetry Foundation, discusses his thoughts on what a poetry critic should do and how they are the reason there is not more interest in modern poetry. His views garnered a whole lot of comments from his readers! It was picked up by Judith Fitzgerald, a Globe Writer who added her 2 cents in an article today. Her point was that given the overwhelming majority of the public (43%) who consider poetry either "pretentious" or "too difficult" (as opposed to the 56% who find it "difficult but worth it" or "essential"), how do we get them to appreciate the poetry that planetary poetry month brings us?

Today, in American poetry, very few critics take it upon themselves to examine the choices poets make in poems, and what effect those choices might have upon a reader. As a consequence, very few people love contemporary American poetry. Many more might, if critics attempted to truly engage with the materials of poetry -- words and how they work -- and to connect poetry with an audience based on an engagement with these materials.

At least this fellow is trying to be helpful and suggests that if poetry critics helped us with understanding why (the critic) thought the poem was worthy - in either, style, language or form, us great unwashed might like modern poetry a bit more.

hmm, not sure about that...


I will end with a poem that I like which perhaps is not very well known. It is a translation of a German poem written by Heine called "Die Lorelei". It is name of a precipitous rock on the Rhine, dangerous to boatmen and celebrated for its echo. The story behind it is of the siren of the rock whose songs lure sailors to their death.

Oddly enough Charles Bernstein, who as I said above, dislikes Poetry month so much, was inspired by this poem to use it as a leaping off point for his language poem "Laurel's Eyes". According to wiki, Charles Bernstein is one of the most prominent members of the school of poetry called "Language Poetry". As I read in the Wiki entry, "this poetry is often alien and difficult to understand at first glance, which is what Language poetry intends: for the reader to participate in creating the meaning of the poem." Having read Heine's poem, you might want to listen to Bernstein's reading of "Laurel's Eyes" and see what you think. I quite liked it. I have included a link to it following the Heine poem translation.

Translation of Heine's "Die Lorelei"
I don’t know what it could mean, that I’m so sad:
I find, A fairy-tale, from times unseen,
Won’t vanish from my mind.
The air is cool and it darkens,
And quiet flows the Rhine:
The tops of the mountains sparkle,
In evening’s after-shine.
The loveliest of maidens,
She’s wonderful, sits there,
Her golden jewels glisten,
She combs her golden hair.
She combs it with a comb of gold,
And sings a song as well:
Its strangeness too is old
And casts a powerful spell.
It grips the boatman in his boat
With a wild pang of woe:
He only looks up to the heights,
Can’t see the rocks below.
I believe the waves swallowed
The boat and its boatman,
That’s what, by her singing,
The Lorelei has done.



You can hear Bernstein's reading of his poem "Laurel's Eyes" here.

Leonard Cohen - He's My Man!

I am a fan of Leonard Cohen’s have been for the longest time. In the last month he has been in the news lots as he starts a new cross Canada tour. Leonard is yet another aging musician still touring and still appreciated by his fans. I am sure many older musicians are out there because they love making music and being on the road, but I would expect that for the most part they are out there at least in part because they don’t have enough funds for retirement. I am sure that is not be the only reason Leonard is still touring at age 75 but for sure he is still putting money aside for his retirement.

Leonard’s story is a little bit different than Willie Nelson’s – unlike Willie it is not an issue with back taxes which caused him to need cash. In 2005 he alleged that his long time manager had misappropriated song rights and more then 5 million dollars in funds. Many years of court cases and lawyers he decided he just needed to move on and hit the road again. I am sad for his misfortune, but I am glad he is still touring. Maybe I will get to see one of his concerts.

Cohen considers himself primarily a poet, although it is his music is what has made him famous. He published his first book of poetry when he was at McGill. He also did a year at law school before living a fairly reclusive life of a writer for most of the 60s, publishing both novels and books of poetry.

He started his folk singing career in 1967. His sometimes dark songs were more popular in Europe than in North America. A couple of his more famous songs – Suzanne and Hallelujah are covered by countless musicians.

Leonard spent 5 years in the 90s in seclusion at a Monastery in California and has been ordained as a Zen Buddhist Monk. He re-entered the music scene in 2001 with a new album and has been touring and producing records since.

To read more about this fascinating man go to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Cohen

CBC Radio 2 is doing a contest to win a trip for 2 to see Leonard Cohen at the Radio City Music hall. You have to listen each day and can enter the contest each time you hear a song by Leonard played. I have so far managed only 2 entries. I just can’t manage to listen to the radio for much of the 6-9 and 3-9 timeslots in which the songs are played. It would sure be great to win the contest. If any of my readers are listening to radio 2 during these hours and hear a Cohen song being played please email/twitter/facebook or blog comment me with the name of the song and the date and timeslot (morning/evening) in which the song was played.

Sure would be nice to win. I can always hope.

If I Were The Internet

I wanted to find something a bit entertaining for today’s blog because it is Friday and we are all tired.  At least I am.  I came across a very funny video on the TED talks which makes fun of the internet. 

In this video, storyteller and poet Rives recites his poem “If I controlled the internet”. Rives is the star of the new Bravo special “Ironic Ironic America”.  He is a regular on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and he was one of the co-hosts of the 2009 TED@PalmSprings conference.

Rive’s Poem:  If I Controlled the Internet

 I found the first part of the lyrics and cut and pasted them here for your convenience:

(Source: http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/datasets/rives-if-i-controlled-the-internet/versions/1.txt) 

If I controlled the internet?
You could auction your broken heart on Ebay
Take the money, go to Amazon,
Buy a phonebook for a country you%u2019ve never been to
Call folks at random until you find someone
who flirts really well in a foreign language

If I were in charge of the internet
You could Mapquest your lover%u2019s moodswings
Hang left at cranky
Right at preoccupied
U turn on silent treatment
All the way back to tongue kissing and good lovin%u2019
You could navigate and understand every emotional intersection
Some days I%u2019m as shallow as a backing pan
But I still stretch miles in all directions

If I own the internet
Napster Monster and Friendster-dot-com would be one big website
That way you could listen to cool music while you pretend to look for a job
and you%u2019re really just chatting with your palls,

Heck if I ran the web
You could email dead people
They would not email you back
But you%u2019d get an automated reply
Their name in your inbox
It%u2019s all you wanted anyway
And a message saying: %u2018Hey, it%u2019s me. I miss you.%u2019
Listen you%u2019ll see, being dead is dandy.

Now you go back to raising kids
And waging peace
And craving candy
If I designed the internet
Childhood-dot-com would be a loop
Of a boy
In an orchard
With a ski pole for a sword
Trashcan lid for a shield, shouting
‘I am the emperor of oranges’
‘I am the emperor of oranges’
‘I am the emperor of oranges’
Now follow me OK

Grandma-dot-com would be a recipe for biscuits and spit bath instructions 1-2-3
That links with hot-diggity-dog-dot-com, that is my grandfather
They take you to gruff-ex-cop-on-his-fourth-marriage-dot-dad
He forms an attachment to kind-a-ditsy-but-still-sends-ginger-snatch-for-Christmas-dot-mom who
Downloads the boy in the orchard, the emperor of oranges who grows up to be

Me,
The guy who usually goes too far, so

If I were the emperor of the internet
I guess I’d still be mortal, huh?
But at that point I would probably already have
The lowest possible mortgage and the most enlarged possible penis, so
I would outlaw spam on my first day in office
I wouldn’t need it.
I’d be like some kind of internet genius.
And me,
I’d like to upgrade to deity and maybe
Just like that

(p-o-p)

I’d go wireless.

Huh.

Maybe google would hire this
So I could zip through your servers and firewalls like a virus
Until the worldwideweb is as wise as wild and as organised
As I think a modern day miracle-slash-oracle can get, but
Oooooooooo, you wanna bet just how whack and un-p.c. your Mac or PC's gonna be when I'm rockin'

hot-shit-hotshot-God-dot-net?

I guess it’s just like life

It’s not a question of if you can
Its, ‘Do ya?’
We can interfere with the interface
We can make you god hallelujah the national anthem of cyberspace every lucky time we logon
You don’t say a prayer
You don’t write a song
You don’t chant an ooooohm

You send one blessed email to
Whoever you’re thinking of
At
Dadeladatatatatatatadadeladedadeladedatatam-dot-com

Rives also has a number of other funny videos where he explores some humourous ideas through poetry and stories.  One is titled “The story of mixed emoticons”.   To Learn more about Rives and to see some of these other videos:

Full bio and more links

 

[Posted with iBlogger from my way kool iPhone]

Sunday Night - rolls around rather quickly!

Ok, so it is Sunday evening and the last thing I will do today is to write this blog. Got lots done over the weekend and yet, still felt at the end of it that I had taken it easy. A nice feeling.

Sunday has a distinctive feel to it, for those of us who work outside the home or go to school, don't you think? As Sunday afternoon winds around the corner of dinner hour and evening approaches one starts thinking about the work (or school) week in front of us. For some who hate their jobs, this is, I am sure, a time when the mood drops like a lead balloon. For the rest of us who like, or at least don't mind their jobs, it can be a time of "getting ready". This is never more illustrated than in the mood that prevails on the night before the first day of each school year. I can remember clearly, clothes at the ready, lunches planned out if not packed, optimistic thoughts or at least encouraging thoughts about what one might encounter in the year to come. And such as it is tonight. A habit I formed long ago. Set yourself up for the week to come and Monday morning is a lot easier.

Today is Robbie Burns day. To all Scots this is a day which is celebrated with Haggis and Robbie Burns poetry. I have been bumping into Robbie Burns Day things all day and enjoying it. Whle I write this I am listening to CBC Radio 1, In the Key of Charles program and he is featuring things Scottish. I have heard a few different renderings of the of the classic love poem, A red, red rose. I wasn't aware of this but it is also set to music and is quite lovely.

A Red, Red Rose
(Standard english Translation)
O, my love is like a red, red rose,
That is newly sprung in June.
O, my love is like the melody,
That is sweetly played in tune.
As fair are you, my lovely lass,
So deep in love am I,
And I will love you still, my Dear,
Till all the seas go dry.
Till all the seas go dry, my Dear,
And the rocks melt with the sun!
O I will love you still, my Dear,
While the sands of life shall run.
And fare you well, my only Love,
And fare you well a while!
And I will come again, my Love,
Although it were ten thousand mile!

Robbie Burns was a lover of women and apparently left quite a few children scattered over the Scottish countryside - (in the care of their mothers, of course!)

So the other bit of news is that I have been looking for tips on blogging and well - I have discovered I have been way over delivering in terms of the number of words! Apparently, readers of blogs can only digest about 200-300 words in one blog and then they lose interest. Those of you who have read the bulk of my blogs so far know that 200 words is a drop in the bucket for me! Even this one, which isn't particularly long IMO, is over 450 words even without counting the poem. So my challenge hence forth is to deliver a blog in less than 300 words which provides one topic of interest (the other tip I found)... Stay tuned for tomorrow's blog.

For those of you who want to stay in touch with my "essay" style blogs I will be continuing those but in another forum. Will let you know when I find a publishing forum for those items