Cohen: Selected Poems

Not having read anything deep and stimulating for a long time, this was brain growing. Texts I don't know, I look up. Really am enjoying.

This volume contains selections from Let Us Compare Mythologies, The Spice-Box of Earth, Flowers for Hitler & Parasites of Heaven, concluding with New Poems. Suzanne is here called Suzanne Takes You Down, and there's an embryonic version of True Love Leaves No Traces, a beautiful song from his much maligned album Death of a Ladies' Man, called As The Mist Leaves No Scar (I also love the breezy pop version by Dead Famous People on the tribute album I'm Your Fan). The poem The Only Tourist In Havana Turns His Thoughts Homeward (1961) reminds me of his song Stories of the Street on the album Songs of Leonard Cohen that also deals with a visit to Havana. Queen Victoria And Me appears on the album Live Songs as just Queen Victoria. The poem It's Good To Sit With People mentions the obscure 1960's singer-songwriter Tim Hardin (the same dude or a relative inspired Dylan's album title John Wesley Harding). I won't venture into literary criticism (my frame of reference is limited to Beats like Allen Ginsburg and Confessionals like Robert Lowell, John Berryman and Anne Sexton) but I love Cohen's imagery and I enjoy most of these poems. The book concludes with an index of first lines. This is a must for all Cohen fans. It's just not the same without the tunes, his voice and those angelic female vocals ...

I anticipated enjoying Cohen's first book of poetry, after all, I have been a fan of his music for nearly 40 years. However, I was truly surprised at the wonder of his language and the emotions that the works convey. I highly recommend this volume, not only to Cohen fans, but to poetry lovers in general.

This volume contains the full lyric of Suzanne, here called "Suzanne Takes You Down" and an embryonic version of True Love Leaves No Traces, a beautiful song from his much maligned album Death Of a Ladies' Man, here called "As The Mist Leaves No Scar" ( I also love the breezy pop version by Dead Famous People on the tribute album I'm Your Fan). The poem The Only Tourist In Havana Turns His Thoughts Homeward (1961) reminds me of his song "Stories of the Street" on the album Songs of Leonard Cohen that also deals with a visit to Havana. Queen Victoria And Me appears on the album Live Songs as just "Queen Victoria." The poem It's Good To Sit With People mentions the obscure 60's singer Tim Hardin (the same guy or a relative inspired Dylan's album title John Wesley Harding). I won't try to venture into literary criticism (my frame of reference is limited to Beats like Allen Ginsburg and Confessionals like Robert Lowell, John Berryman and Anne Sexton) but I love Cohen's imagery and I enjoy most of these. The book concludes with an index of first lines. This is a must for all Cohen completists.

Originally issued in 1968, after Cohen had released his first album and become something of a cult figure. People heard Suzanne and thought, "Oh, I hear this guy's a poet, too; I wonder what he writes..." This book was published to appease such sentiments. And it does a good job of it - covering all of Leonard's poetry books released up to that time, featuring the highlights from each, as well as a good slew of new poems. Although some of Leonard's best poetry (and lyrics) were published after the release of this book - and this omnibus itself has been rendered largely unnecessary due to the release of Leonard's career-spanning collection, Stranger Music (although this does contain several works that that doesn't) - it is still a good collection, and an accurate summing up of Leonard's career up to that point. Reccommended for Cohen fans, if you can find it.