Leonard Cohen (1934–2016)

A welcome dose of early Leonard Cohen, Parasites of Heaven has been the hardest for me to source here in England. Long out-of-print, it was the one remaining book of the late artist's poetry I hadn't read, and eventually I sourced a reprint from Cohen's native Canada. The book satisfies more for that sense of completion as a fan, rather than any stellar poetry of its own. The lines are fine, and possessing of that romantic, heavenly, forlorn troubadour feeling that Cohen cultivated across a magnificent decades-long career, but there is no real standout poem in this slight volume. The inclusion of 'Suzanne' and 'Avalanche' towards the end of the book give Parasites of Heaven its strongest moments and emphasise that, while his poetry is a pleasant diversion for his more devoted fans, Leonard Cohen's more masterly work was delivered in song.… (more)

A collection of poems, including many written during Cohen's time in a Zen monastery. Anyone familiar with any of his other work will probably find the themes and contents here unsurprising: sex, love, loneliness, and desire, the sacred and the earthy and the places where the two meet, anger and sadness and wistfulness and acceptance, the darkness and the light in the world, all intermixed with little personal moments and glimmerings of self-aware, self-deprecating humor.

Some of these poems instantly made sense to me and evoked thoughts and feelings I could relate to. Others were obscure enough that I suspect only the poet himself really knew who and what they were about. Most fell somewhere in between, which seems like a pretty good place for poetry to fall. Although, I must say, I'm usually not a very good reader of poetry (or poetry isn't a particularly good medium for me as a reader), as I often react poorly when I don't feel like I "get" a poem. It makes me feel uncultured and dumb, I suppose, which makes me feel resentful. But Leonard Cohen, as I realized the last time I read one of his poetry collections, circumvents that problem for me entirely, because I take his poems in exactly the spirit I take his song lyrics -- indeed, not a few of these have also appeared as songs on his albums -- and I've never felt dumb not understanding a song lyric, only interested in what I could make out of it for myself. And, as with his music, there is a lot to be made out of these poems.… (more)