Leonard Cohen Photos

a b r a x a s..::.. Marco Antonio posted a photo:

View I'm your man On Black
If you want a lover
I'll do anything you ask me to
And if you want another kind of love
I'll wear a mask for you
If you want a partner
Take my hand
Or if you want to strike me down in anger
Here I stand
I'm your man
If you want a boxer
I will step into the ring for you
And if you want a doctor
I'll examine every inch of you
If you want a driver
Climb inside
Or if you want to take me for a ride
You know you can
I'm your man

Ah, the moon's too bright
The chain's too tight
The beast won't go to sleep
I've been running through these promises to you
That I made and I could not keep
Ah but a man never got a woman back
Not by begging on his knees
Or I'd crawl to you baby
And I'd fall at your feet
And I'd howl at your beauty
Like a dog in heat
And I'd claw at your heart
And I'd tear at your sheet
I'd say please, please
I'm your man

And if you've got to sleep
A moment on the road
I will steer for you
And if you want to work the street alone
I'll disappear for you
If you want a father for your child
Or only want to walk with me a while
Across the sand
I'm your man

If you want a lover
I'll do anything you ask me to
And if you want another kind of love
I'll wear a mask for you

I'm your man - Leonard Cohen

°°k°° posted a photo:

and I'll dance with you in vienna
i'll be wearing a river's disguise
the hyacinth wild on my shoulder,
my mouth on the dew of your thighs
and I'll bury my soul in a scrapbook,
with the photographs there, and the moss
and I'll yield to the flood of your beauty
my cheap violin and my cross
and you'll carry me down on your dancing
to the pools that you lift on your wrist
oh my love, oh my love
take this waltz, take this waltz
it's yours now. it's all that there is.

take this waltz by Leonard Cohen

rik walton posted a photo:

mereshadow posted a photo:

YAYYY! Happy New Years everyone!!

For me: just a Shiny New Reminder,
to keep moving towards "commonwealth, again :)"

"From bitter searching of the heart,
Quickened with passion and with pain
We rise to play a greater part.
This is the faith from which we start:
Men shall know commonwealth again
From bitter searching of the heart.
We loved the easy and the smart,
But now, with keener hand and brain,
We rise to play a greater part.
The lesser loyalties depart,
And neither race nor creed remain
From bitter searching of the heart.
Not steering by the venal chart
That tricked the mass for private gain,
We rise to play a greater part.
Reshaping narrow law and art
Whose symbols are the millions slain,
From bitter searching of the heart
We rise to play a greater part."

~F. Scott & L. Cohen

sabarah.pilon posted a photo:

cabrahamg posted a photo:

°°k°° posted a photo:

trav'ling lady, stay awhile
until the night is over...

winter lady by Leonard Cohen

mother of divine Jaysus posted a photo:

I came so far for beauty
I left so much behind
My patience and my family
My masterpiece unsigned
I thought I'd be rewarded
For such a lonely choice
And surely she would answer
To such a very hopeless voice.

Leonard Cohen.

cara. posted a photo:

lensbaby

mirandaceleste posted a photo:

blogged at www.burningtheletters.net

wild goose chase posted a photo:

well... clementines from Morocco then.

this is as christmassy as i can do....happy xmas!

Jape Wisteria posted a photo:

And even though it all went wrong
I will stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah!!
-- Leonard Cohen, Hallelujah

Ironically, Hallelujah is from Cohen's 1984 comeback album Various Positions, which features some of his best work (The Heart With No Companion, The Night Comes On, Dance Me to the End of Love).

And now, a second spectacular comeback.

Unbelievable.

www.thestar.com/entertainment/Music/article/553372

www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2008/12/17/cohen-song.html

Image credit

The Partygoers posted a photo:

TuroJr posted a photo:

Champignons posted a photo:

I haven't heard the travesty-hallelujah, it's been tricky going shopping though.

Blogged here: www.deborahchampion.co.uk

paperwhite posted a photo:

Ulysses and the Sirens by John William Waterhouse (1891)

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In Greek mythology, the Sirens are creatures with the head of a female and the body of a bird. With the irresistible charm of their song they lured mariners to their destruction on the rocks surrounding their island.
The Argonauts escaped them because when he heard their song, Orpheus immediately realized the peril they were in. He took out his lyre and sang a song so clear and ringing that it drowned the sound of those lovely fatal voices. When on another journey Odysseus' ship passed the Sirens, he had the sailors stuff their ears with wax. He himself was tied to the mast, for he wanted to hear their beautiful voices. The Sirens sang when they approached, their words even more enticing than the melody. They would give knowledge to every man who came to them, they said, ripe wisdom and a quickening of the spirit. Enchanted by their song, he struggled and tried to break free, but two of his men bound him even more tightly and by this means they passed safely beyond the island.

In 1833, the poet Alfred Tennyson concluded his poem Ulysses with the following lines:

"Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

Writing such as this reaches to the heart of what it means to be human: to fight for existence, to win love and lose it, and yet somehow retain the capacity for joy. Such battles and hurts transcend history, geography and gender, and stories on these themes have inspired writers and poets throughout the ages, from Homer and Sappho right through to the present day...

"I did my best; it wasn't much.
I couldn't feel so I learned to touch.
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you.
And even though it all went wrong,
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
with nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah!"

From Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen © 1984

Wikipedia: Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen

Read the full text of Tennyson's Ulysses at : Representative Poetry Online

paperwhite posted a photo:

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,1868. Portrait by Julia Margaret Cameron.

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In a week when the music world is celebrating the influence of Leonard Cohen it seems appropriate to acknowledge another of the writers who have provided inspiration for Cohen himself.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807- 1882) was the most popular poet of his day. He was such an admired figure in the United States during his life that his 70th birthday in 1877 took on the air of a national holiday, with parades, speeches, and the reading of his poetry. He had become one of the first American celebrities and was also popular in Europe. It was reported that 10,000 copies of The Courtship of Miles Standish sold in London in a single day. In 1884 he was the first non-British writer for whom a commemorative sculpted bust was placed in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey in London; he remains the only American poet represented with a bust.

THE BUILDING OF THE SHIP

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
We know what Master laid thy keel,
What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,
Who made each mast, and sail, and rope,
What anvils rang, what hammers beat,
In what a forge and what a heat
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!
Fear not each sudden sound and shock,
'T is of the wave and not the rock;
'T is but the flapping of the sail,
And not a rent made by the gale!
In spite of rock and tempest's roar,
In spite of false lights on the shore,
Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea!
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee,
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears,
Are all with thee, -- are all with thee!

This piece was also an influence on one of Winston Churchill's wartime speeches. It's a section from a much longer work - the complete poem is available at: Representative Poetry Online

Wikipedia: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

from Democracy, by Leonard Cohen -

"Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on."

The Longfellow piece is included in a poetry anthology called Forgotten Treasures: Volume II, published by the Daily Express. It's one of a series of three small paperbacks, each containing a mix of familiar pieces, interesting oddities and half-remembered schoolroom verses. The selections include many works by nineteenth century poets.

Leonard CohenAuthors | Q & A | News | Photos | Articles | Videos | Shop | Links

Leonard Cohen Photos

Leonard Cohen
Authors | Q & A | News | Photos | Articles | Videos | Shop | Links