In addition to writing to instant religious classics like “Hallelujah” and “Anthem,” Leonard Cohen wrote some of the most romantic love songs–some of it beautifully erotic and put to beautifully erotic videos–ever writ.
Leonard Cohen, literary writer, song writer, singer/performer, lady’s man and hopeless romantic–who withdrew for a full five years of his incredible life to a Zen monastery where he was a monk–who could have spent his last years in a lavish apartment in L.A. or New York, spent his last years in a small house with a small yard in a modest, neighborhood. He was, in my book, The Most Interesting Man in the World.
Sit quietly and listen or sing along to the words of these songs that stand alone as meditations for this Day 5 of Lent.
There is a crack in everything . . . and that, in the big spiritual scheme of things, is a good thing.
Read Psalm 51* below to appreciate this Cohen classic.
More about Cohen, “the songwriter’s songwriter,” here.
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* Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
and blameless when you pass judgment.
5 Indeed, I was born guilty,
a sinner when my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you have no delight in sacrifice;
if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
19 then you will delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.
My kinda Man!
I find Cohen to be depressing!
I think we’ve had that discussion about 10 times, and Jackson Brown. And Van Morrison with you being the ONLY man alive who can’t abide him. As trump would say, “Sad.”