Poets' Corner

Number Thirty : 12^th November 2016

Leonard Cohen (1934-2016)

Some called him lugubrious ,
Others said “ He’ll do for us, ”
Vatic , unathletic , rather droll.
The droning bard’s parade
Of biblical turns of phrase
Were music to the ears of his fold.

He droned where folkies meet ,
He droned to a disco beat.
He often made you grin
With his copyright on sin ,
And that lady dressed in red -
Her dialectics on the bed
Would expose ... the emperor’s new clothes.

A guardian of gloom , he meant
To show Carnival and Lent
Arm-in-arm , walking down the aisle.
Half ladies’ man , half gent ,
He claimed direct descent
From those who went to Egypt in exile.

A lazy so and so ,
Versed in Lorca and Rimbaud ,
He was a man you’d like to meet
Coming down the street
To join you in the pub across the road.
The jukebox plays Ghost Riders in the sky
For two old codgers in the by and by.

Pushed to the side of their lives,
The power of choosing gone,
Their looks show they’re for it :
Ash hair , toad hands , prune face
Dried into lines – how can they ignore it ?
You might say , “ Now then ,
What’s your poison Len ? ” -

This is where the final hours chime
For people who have lost all sense of time.

Archive

Poets' Corner #1 – Poetic Pessimism, 13^th September 2012

Poets' Corner #2 – The Workman's Friend, 10^th October 2012

Poets' Corner #3 – On The Trail of Two Dylans, 12^th November 2012

Poets' Corner #4 – Omar Khayyam, 14^th December 2012

Poets' Corner #5 – William Blake, 25^th January 2013

Poets' Corner #6 – A Minor Poet, 19^th February 2013

Poets' Corner #7 – Thomas Hardy, 20^th March 2013

Poets' Corner #8 – Shakespeare's Sonnets, 21^st April 2013

Poets' Corner #9 – Edward Thomas, 20^th May 2013

Poets' Corner #10 – Harry Smith's Anthology, 19^th June 2013

Poets' Corner #11 – William Plomer, 21^st July 2013

Poets' Corner #12 – Ghosts , 20^th August 2013

Poets' Corner #13 – William Dunbar, 20^th September 2013

Poets' Corner #14 – Bathtub Thoughts, 20^th October 2013

Poets' Corner #15 – Bagpipe Music, 20^th November 2013

Poets' Corner #16 – Sylvia & Emily, 20^th December 2013

Poets' Corner #17 – The Fall Of Icarus, 16^th January 2014

Poets' Corner #18 – Those Gone Before, 20^th February 2014

Poets' Corner #19 – Rudyard Kipling, 20^th March 2014

Poets' Corner #20 – Martin Bell, 20^th April 2014

Poets' Corner #21 – Another Modest Proposal, 20^th May 2014

Poets' Corner #22 – Thomas Gray and The Eighteenth Century, 20^th June 2014

Poets' Corner #23 – Edgar Allan Poe, 18^th July 2014

Poets' Corner #24 – Tread Softly, 19^th August 2014

Poets' Corner #25 – Mad To Be Saved, 24^th December 2015

Poets' Corner #26 – Wants, 20^th January 2016

Poets' Corner #27 – Samuel Johnson, 15^th February 2016

Poets' Corner #28 – T.S.Eliot, 10^th March 2016

Poets' Corner #29 – Alfred Lord Tennyson, 18^th April 2016