Book of Longing
by Leonard Cohen
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Leonard Cohen is one of the great writers, performers, and most consistently daring artists of our time. Book of Longing is Cohen’s eagerly awaited new collection of poems, following his highly acclaimed 1984 title, Book of Mercy, and his hugely successful 1993 publication, Stranger Music, a Globe and Mail national bestseller. Book of Longing contains erotic, playful, and provocative line drawings and artwork on every page, by the author, which interact in exciting and unexpected ways on the page with poetry that is timeless, meditative, and at times darkly humorous. The book brings together all the elements that have brought Leonard Cohen’s artistry with language worldwide recognition.
From the Hardcover edition.
close this panelIRVING AND ME AT THE HOSPITAL
He stood up for Nietzsche
I stood up for Christ
He stood up for victory
I stood up for less
I loved to read his verses
He loved to hear my song
We never had much interest
In who was right or wrong
His boxer’s hands were shaking
He struggled with his pipe
Imperial Tobacco
Which I helped him light
KITCHEN TABLE
The same useless thoughts arise
but no one claims them —
Loneliness seizes the frame
and shakes away hope
but no one is hopeless
no one is lonely —
The intricate preparations
for the next moment
direct you
to read this now —
Surrendered to the One
who placed me here
I sit at the very table
where these songs began
some forty years ago —
busy as a bee
in the solitude
- Hydra, 1999
From the Hardcover edition.
Leonard Cohen’s artistic career began in 1956 with the publication of his first book of poetry, Let Us Compare Mythologies (just reissued). He has published two novels, The Favourite Game and Beautiful Losers, and ten books of poetry, most recently Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs and Book of Longing. He has to date made seventeen albums, the latest being Dear Heather. Numerous tribute albums, in many languages, have celebrated his songs. He divides his time between Los Angeles and Montreal.
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“[Book of Longing] is not so much an illustrated collection of poems as it is a shaped autobiography.”
— Globe and Mail
“It reaffirms Cohen’s mastery in the domain of desire, and devotees will not be disappointed.”
— Austin Chronicle
“Tenderness may have replaced passion, but Cohen’s ability to capture this shift makes it poignant and meaningful. . . . Cohen has taken what his friend Irving Layton called ‘the inescapable lousiness of growing old’ and has given it, in its waning days, a profound romantic dignity.”
— Montreal Gazette
“He’s shown an uncanny knack for expressing the changing Zeitgeist.”
— Toronto Star
