Background Image

...

Out Of The Thousands Who Are Known Or Who Want To Be Known As Poets, Maybe One Or Two Are Genuine And The Rest Are Fakes, Hanging Around The Sacred Precincts, Trying To Look Like The Real Thing.

-Leonard Cohen

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Out Of The Thousands

Leonard Cohen

...

Out Of The Thousands Who Are Known Or Who Want To Be Known As Poets, Maybe One Or Two Are Genuine And The Rest Are Fakes, Hanging Around The Sacred Precincts, Trying To Look Like The Real Thing.

Views: 4

Topic

More From Leonard Cohen

I've Never Thought Of Myself As A Religious Person.

Religious Person

Someone Gave Me Wishes And I Wished For An Embrace.

I Think That Any Songwriter - And I Think That Bob Dylan Knows This More Than All Of Us - You Don't Write The Songs Anyhow.

Garages, Barns And Attics Are Always Older Than The Buildings To Which They Are Attached.

You Can Do Anything You Want To [ In Ashram] If You Can Find The Time. It's A Very Rigorous Day. It Starts At 2:30 In The Morning And Often Doesn't End Until Midnight, So If You Can Actually Find A Moment To Have A Drink Or A Smoke, You're Quite Welcome To, As Long As It Doesn't Interfere With Your Capacity To Follow The Schedule.

I'm Never Sure Why I Do Anything, To Tell You The Truth.

In Streams Of Light I Clearly Saw The Dust You Seldom See, Out Of Which The Nameless Makes A Name For One Like Me... All Busy In The Sunlight The Flecks Did Float And Dance, And I Was Tumbled Up With Them In Formless Circumstance.

How Bitter Were The Prozac Pills Of The Last Few Hundred Mornings

I Don't Even Hate Books Anymore.

There Are Always Meaningful Songs For Somebody. People Are Doing Their Courting, People Are Finding Their Wives, People Are Making Babies, People Are Washing Their Dishes, People Are Getting Through The Day, With Songs That We May Find Insignificant. But Their Significance Is Affirmed By Others. There’s Always Someone Affirming The Significance Of A Song By Taking A Woman Into His Arms Or By Getting Through The Night. That’s What Dignifies The Song. Songs Don’t Dignify Human Activity. Human Activity Dignifies The Song.

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.

I Always Thought That Poetry Is The Verdict That Others Give To A Certain Kind Of Writing. So To Call Yourself A Poet Is A Kind Of Dangerous Description. It's For Others; It's For Others To Use.

I'm Afraid To Live Any Place But In Expectation. I'm No Life-risk.

I Cannot Understand Why My Arm Is Not A Lilac Tree.

Everybody Knows That The Dice Are Loaded, Everybody Rolls With Their Fingers Crossed, Everybody Knows That The War Is Over, Everybody Knows The Good Guys Lost.

Everybody Knows That The Boat Is Leaking. Everybody Knows The Captain Lied. Everybody Got This Broken Feeling, Like Their Father Or Their Dog Just Died. Everybody Talking To Their Pockets. Everybody Wants A Box Of Chocolates And A Long-stem Rose. Everybody Knows.

Pay Attention To The Cracks, Because That's Where The Light Gets In.

There's No Concession To The Fact That Dylan Might Be A More Sophisticated Singer Than Whitney Houston, That He's Probably The Most Sophisticated Singer We've Had In A Generation. Nobody Is Identifying Our Popular Singers Like A Matisse Or Picasso. Dylan's A Picasso - That Exuberance, Range, And Assimilation Of The Whole History Of Music.

A Song, You Know, You've Got A Tempo. You Know,you've Got Something That Is Moving Swiftly. You Can't Stop It, You Know? Andit's Designed To Move Swiftly From, You Know, Mouth To Mouth, Heart To Heart,where A Poem Really Speaks To Something That Has No Time And That Is - It's Acompletely Different Perception.

It Doesn't Matter How Anything Happens.

History Is A Needle For Putting Men Asleep Anointed With The Poison Of All They Want To Keep.

I've Often Said If I Knew Where The Good Songs Came From, I'd Go There More Often.

I Heard Of A Man Who Says Words So Beautifully That If He Only Speaks Their Name Women Give Themselves To Him. If I Am Dumb Beside Your Body While Silence Blossoms Like Tumors On Our Lips It Is Because I Hear A Man Climb Stairs And Clear His Throat Outside Our Door.

It Was A Dance Of Masks And Every Mask Was Perfect Because Every Mask Was A Real Face And Every Face Was A Real Mask So There Was No Mask And There Was No Face For There Was But One Dance In Which There Was But One Mask But One True Face Which Was The Same And Which Was A Thing Without A Name Which Changed And Changed Into Itself Over And Over.

He Can Love The Shape Of Human Beings, The Fine And Twisted Shapes Of The Heart. It Is Good To Have Among Us Such Men, Such Balancing Monsters Of Love.

Growing Old Becomes Clear To You At A Certain Point. I Think It's After The Age Of 70 You Realize - You Begin To Actually Be Convinced - You're Growing Older.

In Our Rags Of Light, All Dressed To Kill.

I Would Like To Remind The Management That The Drinks Are Watered And The Hat-check Girl Has Syphilis And The Band Is Composed Of Former Ss Monsters However Since It Is New Year's Eve And I Have Lip Cancer I Will Place My Paper Hat On My Concussion And Dance

I Bargain Now. I Offer Buttons For His Love.

Act The Way You'd Like To Be And Soon You'll Be The Way You Act.

When Things Get Really Bad, Just Raise Your Glass And Stamp Your Feet And Do A Little Jig. That's About All You Can Do.

It's Time That We Began To Laugh And Cry And Cry And Laugh About It All Again.

One Is Given To Self-dramatization From Time To Time. I Intend To Live Forever.

Most Of The Time One Is Discouraged By The Work, But Now And Again By Some Grace Something Stands Out And Invites You To Work On It, To Elaborate It Or Animate It In Some Way. It's A Mysterious Process.

Well I See You There With The Rose In Your Teeth One More Thin Gypsy Thief... Yes, And Thanks, For The Trouble You Took From Her Eyes I Thought It Was There For Good So I Never Tried... And Jane Came By With A Lock Of Your Hair She Said That You Gave It To Her That Night That You Planned To Go Clear.

The Birds They Sangat The Break Of Day.start Again!!i Heard Them Say

Well I Am The One Who Loves Changing From Nothing To One.

One Is Distracted By This Notion That There Is Such An Thing As Inspiration, That It Comes Fast And Easy. And Some People Are Graced By That Style. I'm Not. So I Have To Work As Hard As Any Stiff To Come Up With My Payload

The Maestro Says It's Mozart But It Sounds Like Bubble Gum When You're Waiting For The Miracle To Come.

The Wars They Will Be Fought Again The Holy Dove Be Caught Again Bought And Sold And Bought Again; The Dove Is Never Free.

I Always Felt I Was Scraping The Bottom Of The Barrel Trying To Get A Song Together.

Bottom Of The Barrel

We Are Awakening From The Dream Of Isolation, From The Dream Of Loneliness, And It's A Terrible Shock.

I Told The Truth, I Didn't Come To Fool You

As I Grew Older, I Understood That Instructions Came With This Voice. What Were These Instructions? The Instructions Were Never To Lament Casually. And If One Is To Express The Great Inevitable Defeat That Awaits Us All, It Must Be Done Within The Strict Confines Of Dignity And Beauty.

Everybody Knows That You've Been Faithful, Give Or Take A Night Or Two.

They Ended Every Speech With The Word Hiro, Which Means: Like I Said. Thus Each Man Took Responsibility For Intruding Into The Inarticulate Murmur Of The Spheres. To Hiro They Added The Word Koue, A Cry Of Joy Or Distress, According To Whether It Was Sung Or Howled. Thus They Essayed To Piece The Mysterious Curtain Which Hangs Between All Talking Men: At The End Of Every Utterance A Man Stepped Back, So To Speak, And Attempted To Interpret His Words To The Listener, Attempted To Subvert The Beguiling Intellect With The Noise Of True Emotion.

Seriousness Is The Deepest Pleasure We Have.

He Knew That Hair Couldn't Feel; He Kissed Her Hair.

May You Be Surrounded By Friends And Family, And If This Is Not Your Lot, May The Blessings Find You In Your Solitude.

Family And Friends

The Candles Burned The Moon Went Down The Polished Hill The Milky Town Transparent, Weightless, Luminous Uncovering The Two Of Us On That Fundamental Ground Where Love's Unwilled, Unleashed, Unbound And Half The Perfect World Is Found.

Music Is The Emotional Life Of The Most People.

I Do Cherish Those Moments When I Can Just Relax In The Hotel Room. Because There Are A Lot Of Details That Have To Be Taken Care Of Aside From Just Getting Up Onstage. You're Dealing With A Number Of Human Beings Whose Well-being And Safety You're Concerned About. There Are People I Like To Meet And Talk To In The Crew And The Band.

I Will Not Be Held Like A Drunkard / Under The Cold Tap Of Facts

I Am Not The One Who Loves - It's Love That Chooses Me.

I Alwaysthought Of Myself As A Competent, Minor Poet. I Know Who I'm Up Against.

I Finally Broke Into The Prison I Found My Place In The Chain Even Damnation Is Poisoned With Rainbows

Oh The Sisters Of Mercy, They Are Not Departed Or Gone.

It's Hard To Be Serious About So Many Things. [look At The Whole Emphasis] On The Charts, If You're A Songwriter.

The Dreamers Ride Against The Men Of Action. Oh See The Men Of Action Falling Back.

At First First Nothing Will Happen To Us And Later On It Will Happen To Us Again.

Reality Is One Of The Possibilities I Cannot Afford To Ignore

I Had The Title Poet, And Maybe I Was One For A While. Also, The Title Singer Was Kindly Accorded Me, Even Though I Could Barely Carry A Tune.

A Heavy Burden Lifted From My Soul, I Heard That Love Was Out Of My Control.

I Don't Know Which Side Is Anybody On Any More. I Don't Really Care. There Is A Moment When We Have To Transcend The Side We're On And Understand That We Are Creatures Of A Higher Order.

The Moon Is Swimming Naked And The Summer Night Is Fragrant With A Mighty Expectation Of Relief.

You Lose Your Grip, And Then You Slip Into The Masterpiece.

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.

The Poor Stay Poor, The Rich Get Rich / Thats How It Goes / Everybody Knows.

This Particular School Of Zen Has Always Considered Itself The Marines Of The Spiritual World, So It Has A Kind Of Bias Against Conceptual Thinking In Favor Of A Very Rigorous Physical Life.

I'm Writing All The Time. And As The Songs Begin To Coalesce, I'm Not Doing Anything Else But Writing. I Wish I Were One Of Those People Who Wrote Songs Quickly. But I'm Not. So It Takes Me A Great Deal Of Time To Find Out What The Song Is.

This Is Every Musician's Dream, To Stand In Front Of An Audience And Not Have To Prove Your Credentials.

It's Four In The Morning, The End Of December I'm Writing You Now Just To See If You're Better.

I Am Running Through A Snowfall Which Is Her Thighs, He Dramatized In Purple. Her Thighs Are Filling Up The Street. Wide As A Snowfall, Heavy As Huge Falling Zeppelins, Her Damp Thighs Are Settling On The Sharp Roofs And Wooden Balconies. Weather-vanes Press The Shape Of Roosters And Sail-boats Into The Skin. The Faces Of Famous Statues Are Preserved Like Intaglios.

Comic Books, Movies, Radio Programmes Centered Their Entertainment Around The Fact Of Torture. With The Clearest Of Consciences, With A Patriotic Intensity, Children Dreamed, Talked, Acted Orgies Of Physical Abuse. Imaginations Were Released To Wander On A Reconnaissance Mission From Cavalry To Dachau. European Children Starved And Watched Their Parents Scheme And Die. Here We Grew Up With Toy Whips. Early Warning Against Our Future Leaders, The War Babies.

If You Want A Lover I'll Do Anything You Ask. If You Want A Different Kind Of Love I'll Wear A Mask. If You Want To Strike Me Down In Anger Here I Stand. If You Want A Partner In Life Take My Hand. I'm Your Man.

We've Got To Temper Anything We Say With That. On The Other Hand, You've Got To Be Serious About What You Do. And You've Got To Understand The Price You Pay For Frivolity Or Just For Greed - It's A Very High Price, Especially If You're Involved In This Sacred Material, Which Is About The Human Heart And Human Desire And Human Tragedy.

It's Been A Long Time Since I've Stood On A Stage In London. Was About 14 Or 15 Years Ago, I Was 60 Years Old, Just A Kid With A Crazy Dream. Since Then I've Taken A Lot Of Prozac, Paxil, Wellbutrin, Effexor, Ritalin, Focalin. I've Also Studied Deeply In The Philosophies And The Religions, But Cheerfulness Kept Breaking Through.

There Are No Letters In The Mailbox And There Are No Grapes Upon The Vine And There Are No Chocolates In Your Boxes Anymore And There Are No Diamonds In The Mine

It Just Takes A Long Time For Me [to Write A Song]. I'm Very Slow. And It Comes, Kind Of, By Dribbles And Drops.

I Found That Things Became A Lot Easier When I No Longer Expected To Win. You Abandon Your Masterpiece And Sink Into The Real Masterpiece.

To Every People The Land Is Given On Condition. Perceived Or Not, There Is A Covenant, Beyond The Constitution, Beyond Sovereign Guarantee, Beyond The Nation's Sweetest Dreams Of Itself.

In My Secret Life" "i Saw You This Morning, You Were Moving So Fast. Can't Seem To Loosen My Grip On The Past. And I Miss You So Much, There's No One In Sight. And We're Still Making Love In My Secret Life. I Smile When I Am Angry, I Cheat And I Lie, I Do What I Have To Do To Get By, In My Secret Life.

There Are A Few Things That Deal With Passion. There's Prozac.

I Would Like To Work With Pat [ Leonard] In Any Capacity. I Would Love To Hear His Versions.

You've Got A Deadline. Well, I Do, Too: Death.

A Man Never Got A Woman Back... Not By Begging On His Knees.

There Is A War Between The Ones Who Say There Is A War And The Ones Who Say There Isn't.

I Want To Be Paid For My Work, Not Work For My Pay.

What [prozac] Does Is Completely Annihilate The Sexual Drive, So The Question Of Passion Hardly Arises.

We Used To Play Music For Fun. Much More Than Now. Now Nobody Picks Up A Guitar Unless They're Paid For It.

To The Men And Women Who Own Men And Women Those Of Us Meant To Be Lovers We Will Not Pardon You For Wasting Our Bodies And Time

This Is The Most Challenging Activity That Humans Get Into, Which Is Love. You Know, Where We Have The Sense That We Can't Live Without Love. That Life Has Very Little Meaning Without Love.

The Duty Of Lovers Is To Tarnish The Golden Rule

The Less I Was Of Who I Was, The Better I Felt.

Now I've Heard There Was A Secret Chord That David Played, And It Pleased The Lord But You Don't Really Care For Music, Do You? It Goes Like This The Fourth, The Fifth The Minor Fall, The Major Lift The Baffled King Composing Hallelujah

I Loved You For A Long, Long Time I Know This Love Is Real It Don't Matter How It All Went Wrong That Don't Change The Way I Feel And I Can't Believe That Time's Gonna Heal This Wound I'm Speaking Of There Ain't No Cure For Love

Get Ready For The Future: It Is Murder.

And Here You Are Hurried, And Here You Are Gone; And Here Is The Love, That It's All Built Upon.

I Know There Is An Eye That Watches All Of Us. There Is A Judgment That Weighs Everything We Do. And Before This Great Force, Which Is Greater Than Any Government I Stand In Awe And I Kneel In Respect And It Is To This Great Judgment That I Dedicate This Next Song...

I Guess You Go For Nothing, If You Really Want To Go That Far.

How Can I Begin Anything New With All Of Yesterday In Me?

You Are Locked Into Your Suffering And Your Pleasures Are The Seal.

First Of All Nothing Will Happen And A Little Later Nothing Will Happen Again.

I'd Written A Lot Of Songs With Hummingbirds In Them. None Of Them Ever Came To Anything, But I Did Write A Few Lines Last Month. It Went Like This: 'listen To The Hummingbird Whose Wings You Cannot See. Listen To The Hummingbird, Don't Listen To Me'.

Never Make A Decision When You Need To Pee.

I Listen To The Radio And I Like All Kinds Of Music, You Know, But I Like To Hear From People Who Have Been There. Hank Williams Has Been There.

Songs Don’t Dignify Human Activity. Human Activity Dignifies The Song.

I Fought Against The Bottle, But I Had To Do It Drunk. Took My Diamond To The Pawn Shop, But That Don't Make It Junk.

I Wish I Could Say Everything In One Word. I Hate All The Things That Can Happen Between The Beginning Of A Sentence And The End.

I Feel That This Is A Vocabulary That I Grew Up With. This Biblical Landscape Is Very Familiar To Me, And It's Natural That I Use Those Landmarks As References. Once They Were Universal References And Everybody Understood And Knew Them And Located Them. That's No Longer The Case Today, But It Is Still My Landscape.

You Can Say That I've Grown Bitter But Of This You Can Be Sure. The Rich Have Get Their Channels In The Bedrooms Of The Poor. And There's A Mighty Judgement Coming But I May Be Wrong.

I've Forgotten Most Of What I've Read And, Frankly, It Never Seemed Very Important To Me Or To The World.

When You're Younger, You Do Have That Thing That You Were Talking About Where The Mouth Goes Dry. I Mean You Have Reactions, And You Do Fall In Love.

Falling In Love

Poetry Is A Verdict Rather Than An Intention.

Fare Thee Well My Nightingale, I Lived But To Be Near You. Thow You Are Singing Somewhere Still I Can No Longer Hear You.

Here's To The Few Who Forgive What You Do, And The Fewer Who Don't Even Care

It Doesn't Matter What You Do Because It's Going To Happen Anyway.

My Friends Are Gone And My Hair Is Grey. I Ache In Places I Used To Play. And I’m Crazy For Love But I’m Not Coming On. I’m Just Paying My Rent Every Day In The Tower Of Song.

Only In Canada Could Somebody With A Voice Like Mine Win 'vocalist Of The Year'.

I Almost Went To Bed Without Remembering The Four White Violets I Put In The Button-hole Of Your Green Sweater And How I Kissed You Then And You Kissed Me Shy As Though I’d Never Been Your Lover

I Have Nothing Against The Queen Of England. Even In My Heart I Never Resented Her For Not Being Jackie Kennedy. She Is, To My Mind, A Very Gallant Lady, Victimized By Whoever It Is Who Designs The Tops Of Her Uniforms.

Most Of Our Distractions Are Designed To Invite Us Away From This Recognition, Which Is A Good Idea.

Take One Step To The Side And It's All Absurd.

And What Can I Tell You, My Brother, My Killer, What Can I Possibly Say? I Guess That I Miss You, I Guess I Forgive You, I'm Glad You Stood In My Way

Some People Are Graced With A Flow; Some People Are Graced With Something Less Than A Flow. I'm One Of Those.

Although Only One Man May Be Receiving The Favors Of A Woman, All Men In Her Presence Are Warmed. That's The Great Generosity Of Women And The Great Generosity Of The Creator Who Worked It Out Is That There Are No Unilateral Agreements On Sexuality.

I Noticed That When I Was On Prozac My Relationship With The Landscape Improved. I Actually Stopped Thinking About Myself For A Minute Or Two, Because Most Of The Thoughts One Has About Oneself Are Involved With Desire Or Loneliness Or Isolation Or Strategies To Overcome Them.

Who Could Have Foretold The Heart Grows Old From Touching Others

I've Expressed My Gratitude To My Son Many Times. And His Career Is Far From Undistinguished, And It Was A Great Privilege To Have Someone Of This Skill Bringing This Album To Conclusion.

A Kite Is A Victim You Are Sure Of. You Love It Because It Pulls.

We Actually Lead Very Violent, Passionate Lives And I Think That We're Hungry For Insights Into This Condition. That's Why We Get All That Stuff On Television. It's Really Where We Are, Really What We Are.

It's Not A Cry You Can Hear At Night. It's Not Somebody Who Has Seen The Light. It's A Cold And It's A Broken Hallelujah.

Poetry Is Just The Evidence Of Life. If Your Life Is Burning Well, Poetry Is Just The Ash.

A Poem Has A Certain - A Different Time. For Instance, A Poem Is A Very Private Experience, And It Doesn't Have A Driving Tempo. In Other Words, You Know, You Can Go Back And Forward; You Can Comeback; You Can Linger. You Know, It's A Completely Different Time Reference.

You Have Money, Fame, Youth, Beauty, Talent. That's A Good Start... For Feeling Good.

I Felt Like If Any Two People Had Any Kind Of Sexual Affinity For Each Other They Had To Sleep With Each Other Immediately, Otherwise It Was A Terrible Betrayal And Waste...fortunately, I'm Relieved Of Those Obsessions Now. It's Really Wonderful. It's Really Wonderful Not Feeling You Have To Sleep With Everybody.

No One Masters The Heart.

In The Broken Places, The Light Shines Through.

If I Knew Where The Good Songs Came From, I’d Go There More Often. It’s A Mysterious Condition. It’s Much Like The Life Of A Catholic Nun. You’re Married To A Mystery.

Even Damnation Is Poisoned With Rainbows.

Maybe We, The Cultural Workers , Could Apply Ourselves. We're Not Going To Resolve It In This Moment Or Even In This Generation, But Perhaps As Some Kind Of Agenda We Could Invite Our Writers And Cultural Workers To Address The Problem A Little More Responsibly, Because People Are Suffering Tremendously From A Want Of Data.

Lift Me Like An Olive Branch And Be My Homeward Dove Dance Me To The End Of Love.

I Turned My Back On The Devil, Turned My Back On The Angel Too.

Out Of The Thousands Who Are Known Or Who Want To Be Known As Poets, Maybe One Or Two Are Genuine And The Rest Are Fakes, Hanging Around The Sacred Precincts, Trying To Look Like The Real Thing.

Well, For One Thing, In The Tradition Of Zen That I've Practiced, There Is No Prayerful Worship And There Is No Affirmation Of A Deity.

I Think Culture's Always Been Violent, And It Is Something We Find Very Entertaining. Not Only Does It Reflect Our Social Reality, But It Also Reflects Our Psychic Reality.

And May My Bronze Name / Touch Always Her Thousand Fingers / Grow Brighter With Her Weeping / Until I Am Fixed Like A Galaxy / And Memorized / In Her Secret And Fragile Skies.

Well It's True, Ever Since I Stopped Eating Meat I Feel A Lot Better Among Animals, I Feel I Can Be Much More Honest When I Pat A Dog.

I've Always Held The Song In High Regard Because Songs Have Got Me Through So Many Sinks Of Dishes And So Many Humiliating Courting Events.

A Sip Of Wine, A Cigarette, And Then It’s Time To Go. I Tidied Up The Kitchenette; I Tuned The Old Banjo. I’m Wanted At The Traffic-jam. They’re Saving Me A Seat.

Yes, You Who Must Leave Everything That You Cannot Control, It Begins With Your Family, And Soon It Comes Round To Your Soul. Well I've Been Where You're Hanging, I Think I Can See How You're Pinned: When You're Not Feeling Holy Your Loneliness Says That You've Sinned.

This Mental Space Is Occupied And Everything Is Mine.

Love Is Not A Victory March

Well, I've Been Waiting, I Was Sure We'd Meet Between The Trains We're Waiting For I Think It's Time To Board Another Please Understand, I Never Had A Secret Chart To Get Me To The Heart Of This Or Any Other Matter

Some People, It [songwriting] Comes Faster. Some People, It Comes Slower.

I Don't Remember Lighting This Cigarette And I Don't Remember If I'm Here Alone Or Waiting For Someone.

Creators Care Nothing For Their Systems Except That They Be Unique.

There's A Deep Tribal Aspect To My Own Nature. So When I'm In Contact With Those Deep Resources, Of Course I Feel A Very Special Kind Of Nourishment.

She Was Made Of Flesh And Eyelashes.

We're In A World Where There's Famine And Hunger And People Are Dodging Bullets And Having Their Nails Pulled Out In Dungeons So It's Very Hard For Me To Place Any High Value On The Work That I Do To Write A Song. Yeah, I Work Hard But Compared To What?

As A Young Man, Yeats Spoke To Me In A Way I Could Understand. Shakespeare I Couldn't Understand, But Yeats I Could. It Was His Subject Matter And Also I Really Admired The Way He Put His Personal Life On The Line.

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.

If You're Lucky, You Can Keep The Vehicle Healthy And Responsive Over The Years. If You're Lucky, Your Own Intentions Have Very Little To Do With This.

I Won't Comment On What Bob Dylan Said, But I Will Comment On His Receiving The Nobel Prize, Which To Me Is Like Pinning A Medal On Mount Everest For Being The Highest Mountain.

I Dreamed About You Baby. It Was Just The Other Night. Most Of You Was Naked Ah, But Some Of You Was Light.

[i Had A Sense Of Interior Panic].always. I Didn't Really Know What To Call It For A Long Time, But I Have A Friend In Greece Who Used That Word Panic A Lot, And I Found Myself Resisting It, Until I Totally Accepted That As A Precise Description Of My Interior Condition. It Was Mostly Panic From One Moment To The Next. And Nothing Much Else Was Going On.

When You Stop Thinking About Yourself All The Time, A Certain Sense Of Repose Overtakes You.

Thinking About You

The Older I Get, The Surer I Am That I'm Not Running The Show.

I Looked Into [prozac]. I Must Say That It Is Certainly A Wonder Drug.

Prayer Is Translation. A Man Translates Himself Into A Child Asking For All There Is In A Language He Has Barely Mastered.

I Never Really Liked Poetry Readings; I Liked To Read Poetry By Myself, But I Liked Singing, Chanting My Lyrics To This Jazz Group.

God Is Alive. Magic Is Afoot. God Is Alive. Magic Is Afoot. God Is Afoot. Magic Is Alive. Alive Is Afoot. Magic Never Died. God Never Sickened. Many Poor Men Lied. Many Sick Men Lied. Magic Never Weakened. Magic Never Hid. Magic Always Ruled. God Is Afoot. God Was Ruler Though His Funeral Lengthened. Though His Mourners Thickened Magic Never Fled.

I Am An Old Scholar, Better-looking Now Than When I Was Young. That's What Sitting On Your Ass Does To Your Face.

The Fact That My Songs Take A Long Time To Write Is No Guarantee Of Their Excellence.

...a Young Nurse Is Standing Close Behind Me Wondering Whether She Is Being Drawn By My Power Or Her Charity.

Your Servant Here, He Has Been Told To Say It Clear, To Say It Cold: It's Over, It Ain't Going Any Further And Now The Wheels Of Heaven Stop You Feel The Devil's Riding Crop Get Ready For The Future: It Is Murder

We Are So Lightly Here. It Is In Love That We Are Made. In Love We Disappear.

Love Is The Only Engine Of Survival

The Art Of Longing's Over, And It's Never Coming Back.

It's True That All The Men You Knew Were Dealers Who Said They Were Through With Dealing Every Time You Gave Them Shelter. I Know That Kind Of Man It's Hard To Hold The Hand Of Anyone Who Is Reaching For The Sky Just To Surrender.

It's Easy To Look Down From The Summit You've Reached, Or Even The Summit I've Reached, And Talk About The Responsibilities Of The Artist, But Most People Are Just Trying To Get Their Foot In The Door And Make A Living.

All The Lousy Little Poets Coming Around Trying To Sound Like Charles Manson.

Love Is A Fire/it Burns Everyone/it Disfigures Everyone/it Is The World's Excuse For Being Ugly.

You Say I Took The Name In Vain I Don't Even Know The Name But If I Did, Well Really, What's It To You? There's A Blaze Of Light In Every Word It Doesn't Matter Which You Heard The Holy Or The Broken Hallelujah

Everybody Knows The Dice Are Loaded.

A Scar Is What Happens When The Word Is Made Flesh.

Wounds And Scars

My Heart Sings Of Your Longing For Me, And My Thoughts Climb Down To Marvel At Your Mercy. I Do Not Fear As You Gather Up My Days. Your Name Is The Sweetness Of Time, And You Carry Me Close Into The Night, Speaking Consolations, Drawing Down Lights From The Sky, Saying, See How The Night Has No Terrors For One Who Remembers The Name.

I Think That Really What Our Training, What Our Culture, Our Religious Institutions, Our Educational And Cultural Institutions Should Be About Is Preparing The Heart For That Journey Outside Of The Cage Of The Ribs.

But I'm Stubborn As Those Garbage Bags That Time Cannot Decay, I'm Junk But I'm Still Holding Up This Little Wild Bouquet: Democracy Is Coming To The U.s.a.

Why Don't You Try To Do Without Him, Why Don't You Try To Live Alone? Do You Really Need His Hands For Your Passion? Do You Really Need His Heart For Your Throne? Do You Need His Labor For Your Baby? Do You Need His Beast For The Bone? Do You Need To Hold A Leash To Be A Lady? I Know That You Can Make It, You Can Make It On Your Own.

Anything I Tell You Is An Alibi For Something Else." Then Let's Be Quiet Together.

And This Is Our Time-keeper, With A Passion For Percussion

To Keep Our Hearts Open Is Probably The Most Urgent Responsibility You Have As You Get Older.

The Cutting Of The Gem Has To Be Finished Before You Can See Whether It Shines.

Let Judges Secretly Despair Of Justice: Their Verdicts Will Be More Acute. Let Generals Secretly Despair Of Triumph; Killing Will Be Defamed. Let Priests Secretly Despair Of Faith: Their Compassion Will Be True.

All Men Will Be Sailors Then Until The Sea Shall Free Them

If Your Life Is A Leaf That The Seasons Tear Off And Condemn They Will Bind You With Love That Is Graceful And Green As A Stem.

I Have Tried In My Way To Be Free.

The Term Clinical Depression Finds Its Way Into Too Many Conversations These Days. One Has A Sense That A Catastrophe Has Occurred In The Psychic Landscape.

Except For A Couple Of Hours In The Morning Which I Passed In The Company Of A Sage I Stayed In Bed Without Food Only A Few Mouthfuls Of Water “you Are A Fine Looking Old Man” I Said To Myself In The Mirror “and What Is More You Have The Correct Attitude You Don’t Care If It Ends Or If It Goes On And As For The Women And The Music There Will Be Plenty Of That In Paradise” Then I Went To The Mosque Of Memory To Express My Gratitude

Trending Author

Edward Carpenter

Gioachino Rossini

George Galloway

John Maynard Keynes

Category