The Favourite Game

By ten o'clock the floor was jammed with sharply dressed couples, and, seen from the upstairs balcony, their swaying and jolting seemed to be nourished directly by the pulsing music, and they muffled it like shock absorbers. The bass and piano and steady brush-drum passed almost silently into their bodies where it was preserved as motion...

I

There was nothing superficial about a thousand people deeply engaged in the courting ritual, the swinging fragments of reflected light sweeping across their immobile eye-closed faces, amber, green, violet. They couldn't help being impressed, fascinated by the channelled violence and the voluntary organization.

I

-Leonard Cohen

I

Don't his words just curl around your senses deliciously?

Canadian Hero

I was in my first year of college when I learned of Leonard Cohen. And by learned of him I mean my English prof played 'Suzanne' in class and I immediately dismissed him and his work as stupid. I was bored by his low register, by the repetition, by the lack of what I thought was instrumental interest, by the stupid lyrics that I didn't understand.

I was distracted by the boy that sat next to me. We often giggled conspiratorially at the prof's poor english skills. She was a fresh faced middle aged lady from Russia who spoke with a heavy accent. We never forgot one incident in which she was trying to describe an animal to us. "It's large, has spotted fur...." We stared at her blankly. "Rhymes with leotard..."

Could she possibly mean leopard? As one, the class burst into laughter. We sat there laughing at our bewildered professor for at least a minute. (We were a jolly, if somewhat immature bunch.) Finally, wiping the tears from my eyes, I enlightened her as to the correct pronunciation of that difficult word. Her face changed colour as she quickly went on with the lecture.

I've developed a bit more sensitivity since that year. Cohen moves me. I listen to him on repeat at work and the time flies by with his beautiful words.

You held on to me like I was a crucifix.

Like a baby stillborn

like a beast with his horn

I have torn

everyone who reached out for me.

I'm stubborn as those garbage bags

that time cannot decay.

I said, "Lady, unfold me".