Open Culture is a great website for finding all sorts of interesting media. Today, there was a post on their Facebook page about a couple of videos of Leonard Cohen’s poems.
His poetry doesn’t always touch me. This one did.
Say not in grief that she is no more
but say in thankfulness that she was
A death is not the extinguishing of a light,
but the putting out of the lamp
because the dawn has come.
it is perfect.
In The Desert
~Stephen Crane
In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said: “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter—bitter,” he answered;
“But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart.”
Very few can sit down
in the middle of the fire itself
like a salamander or Abraham.
We need intermediaries.
A feeling of fullness comes,
but usually it takes some bread
to bring it.
Beauty surrounds us,
but usually we need to be walking
in a garden to know it.
The body itself is a screen
to shield and partially reveal
the light that’s blazing
inside your presence.
Water, stories, the body,
all the things we do, are mediums
that hide and show what’s hidden.
Study them,
and enjoy being washed
with a secret we sometimes know,
and then not.
Monday’s child is full of grace,
Tuesday’s child is fair of face.
Wednesday’s child is full of woe,
Thursday’s child has far to go.
Friday’s child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works hard for a living.
But the child that is born on the Sabbath day,
is healthy, wealthy, happy and gay.
I share the date with Forrest Whittaker, Emily Ronstadt, Jesse “the Body” Ventura, Jan-Michael Vincent, Alex Karras, Clement Clark Moore and Rembrandt van Rijn.
I am the Audience 