And I'll dance with you in Vienna, I'll be wearing a river's disguise. The hyacinth wild on my shouldermy 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.Leonard Cohen
... i didn't fall in love of courseit's never up to youbut she was walking back and forthand i was passing throughLeonard Cohen
Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.Leonard Cohen
It was a dance of masks and every mask was perfect because every mask was a real face and every face was areal mask so there was no mask and there was no face for there was but one dance in which there was butone mask but one true face which was the same and which was a thing without a name which changed andchanged into itself over and over.Leonard Cohen
I loved you when you opened like a lily to the heat; you see I’m just another snowman standing in the rain and sleet who loved you with his frozen love, his second hand physique, with all he is and all he was a thousand kisses deep.Leonard Cohen
There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.Leonard Cohen
First of all nothing will happen and a little laternothing will happen againLeonard Cohen
Deprivation is the mother of poetry.Leonard Cohen
So much of the world is plunged in darkness and chaos... So ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in.Leonard Cohen
Who could have foretoldthe heart grows oldfrom touching othersLeonard Cohen
I heard of a manwho says words so beautifullythat if he only speaks their namewomen give themselves to him. If I am dumb beside your bodywhile silence blossoms like tumors on our lipsit is because I hear a man climb stairsand clear his throat outside our door.Leonard Cohen
At first first nothing will happen to usand later on it will happen to us again.Leonard Cohen
I walk through the old yellow sunlightto get to my kitchen tablethe poem about melying there with the booksin which I am listedamong the dead and future DylansLeonard Cohen
Your faith was strong, but you needed proof...Leonard Cohen
Be With Me In The Phases Of My Work Because My Brain Feels Like It Has Been Whipped And I Yearn To Make A Small Perfect Thing Which Will Live In Your Morning Like Curious Static Through A President's Elegy Or A Nude Hunchback Acquiring A Tan On The Crowded Oily Beach.Leonard Cohen
I've forgotten most of what I've read and, frankly, it never seemed very important to me or to the world.Leonard Cohen
DEAR DIÂARYYou are greater than the BibleAnd the ConÂferÂence of the BirdsAnd the UpÂanÂishadsAll put toÂgethÂer You are more seÂvere Than the ScripÂturesAnd HamÂmuraÂbi’s CodeMore danÂgerÂous than Luther’s paÂper Nailed to the CatheÂdral door You are sweetÂer Than the Song of SongsMightÂier by far Than the Epic of GilÂgameshAnd braver Than the Sagas of IceÂlandI bow my head in gratÂitude To the ones who give their lives To keep the seÂcret The daiÂly seÂcret UnÂder lock and key Dear DiÂaryI mean no disÂreÂspect But you are more subÂlime Than any SaÂcred TextSomeÂtimes just a list Of my events Is holiÂer than the Bill of RightsAnd more inÂtense .Leonard Cohen
Friend, when you speak this carefully I know it is because you don't know what to say.Leonard Cohen
There is a crack, a crack, in everything. That's how the light gets in.Leonard Cohen
Reality is one of the possibilities I cannot afford to ignoreLeonard Cohen
Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That's how the light gets in.Leonard Cohen
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. So we’re invited into this arena which is a very dangerous arena, where the possibilities of humiliation and failure are ample. So there’s no fixed lesson that one can learn, because the heart is always opening and closing, it’s always softening and hardening. We’re always experiencing joy or sadness. But there are lots of people who’ve closed down. And there are times in one’s life when one has to close down just to regroup.Leonard Cohen
Ah, grief makes us precise!Leonard Cohen
If only my genitals didn't float When I relaxed in the bath And we both looked down and we both agreed It's stupid to be a manLeonard Cohen
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 .Leonard Cohen
A teacher I once had told me that the older you get, the lonelier you become and the deeper the love you need. Loneliness creates an appetite for deeper love, and the entire predicament deepens. And as a result of suffering, your capacity to love deeply increases.Leonard Cohen
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.Leonard Cohen
How quickly pettiness returns, and that most ignoble form of real estate, the possessive occupation and tyranny over two square inches of human flesh, the wife's cunt.Leonard Cohen
There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.Leonard Cohen
Blessed is the covenant of love, the covenant of mercy, useless light behind the terror, deathless song in the house of night.Leonard Cohen
Blessed are you who circled desire with a blade, and the garden with fiery swords, and heaven and earth with a word.Leonard Cohen
Though I love your company, your instructions are wasted her. I will always choose the woman who caries me off, I will always sit with the family of loneliness.Leonard Cohen
My animal howls My angel's upset But I'm not allowed A trace of regretLeonard Cohen
It is easy to display a wound, the proud scars of combat. It is hard to show a pimpleLeonard Cohen
You should gofrom place to placerecovering the poemsthat have been written for youto which you can affix your signature. Don't discuss these matterswith anyone. Retrieve. Retrieve.When the basket is fullsomeone will appearto whom you can present it.Leonard Cohen
Sexuality is general, and although only one man may be receiving the favors of a woman, all men in her presence are warm. That's the great generosity of women and the great generosity of the creator who worked it out that way, that there are no unilateral agreements of sexuality.Leonard Cohen
Show me slowly what I onlyknow the limits of Dance me to the end of loveLeonard Cohen
If I spelled out the Principles of FaithI would be barking on the moon.Leonard Cohen
I know she is coming I know she will look And that is the longing And this is the book.Leonard Cohen
The RemoteI often think about youwhen I’m lying alone inmy room with my mouthopen and the remotelost somewhere in the bed.Leonard Cohen
Dear friend, I have searched all nightthrough each burnt paper, but I fear I will never findthe formula to let you dieLeonard Cohen
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed Everybody knows the war is over Everybody knows the good guys lost Everybody knows the fight was fixed The poor stay poor, the rich get rich That's how it goes Everybody knowsLeonard Cohen
Remember when I moved in you and the holy dove was moving too, and every breath we drew was, "Hallelujah.Leonard Cohen
There is a crack in everythingLeonard Cohen
It looks like freedom but it feels like death, it's something in between I guess. It's closing time.Leonard Cohen
I want history to jump on Canada's spine with sharp skates.Leonard Cohen
Children show scars like medals. Lovers use them as a secrets to reveal. A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh.Leonard Cohen
In dreams the truth is learned that all good works are done in the absence of a caress.Leonard Cohen
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.Leonard Cohen
I think the term poet is a very exalted term and should be applied to a man at the end of his work. When he looks back over the body of his work and he's written poetry then let the verdict be that he's a poet.Leonard Cohen
Music is the emotional life of most people.Leonard Cohen
At a certain point, if you still have your marbles and are not faced with serious financial challenges, you have a chance to put your house in order. It's a cliche, but it's underestimated as an analgesic on all levels. Putting your house in order, if you can do it, is one of the most comforting activities, and the benefits of it are incalculable.Leonard Cohen
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.Leonard Cohen
Success is survival.Leonard Cohen
I never really liked poetry readings; I liked to read poetry by myself, but I liked singing, chanting my lyrics to this jazz group.Leonard Cohen
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.Leonard Cohen
My reputation as a ladies' man was a joke. It caused me to laugh bitterly through the 10, 000 nights I spent alone.Leonard Cohen