Watching Leonard Cohen’s Concert from Earls Court, London on PBS

Suzanne takes you down

to a place by the river

touch her with your mind

He stands on the stage, band off to the side, leaving him by himself.  He is rumpled.  He wears a dark fedora, jacket and slacks, a white dress shirt the only relief; a lighthouse beam interrupting the dark. 

your faith was strong but

you needed the proof she gave

the Hallelujah

He grips the microphone tightly, strong, wrinkled fingers wrapped around it like a baseball bat.  His other hand cups the mike, directing his words, channeling them, protecting them—from what?—like a tenuous flickering flame of a match struck in the wind.

ponies run, girls young

you win a while, then it’s done

thousand kisses deep

He crouches in a boxer’s stance—prepared to run, perhaps to dance?  The twinkle in his eye suggests that he knows, but no one else.  Then he opens his mouth in growly baritone and sings of truth and love and life.

dance me to beauty

dance me to the end of love

dance me on and on

© 2009, Kenneth M. Rhodes

NB:  The haiku verses are my arrangements of, and were inspired by, lyrics of Leonard Cohen's songs.  No copyright protection of these lines is claimed by me.