Wednesday, April 22, 2020

A Room of My Own: My Little Darling Tanka

Thirty-Fifth Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary,  written for health care workers and Leonard Cohen

in breezy moonlight
Montrealers on balconies
burst into song:
Come over to the window
my little darling

Note: Listen to Leonard Cohen's live performance (in Dublin) of So Long, Marianne.

Added: Thirty-Sixth Entry

quarantine
just still-time spent
with this attic...

I murmur to myself
and empty streets below

1 comment:

  1. "So Long, Marianne," by Leonard Cohen

    [Verse 1]
    Come over to the window, my little darling
    I'd like to try to read your palm
    I used to think I was some kind of Gypsy boy
    Before I let you take me home

    [Chorus]
    Now so long, Marianne, it's time that we began
    To laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again

    [Verse 2]
    Well you know that I love to live with you
    But you make me forget so very much
    I forget to pray for the angels
    And then the angels forget to pray for us

    [Chorus]
    Now so long, Marianne, it's time that we began
    To laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again

    [Verse 3]
    We met when we were almost young
    Deep in the green lilac park
    You held on to me like I was a crucifix
    As we went kneeling through the dark


    [Chorus]
    Oh so long, Marianne, it's time that we began
    To laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again

    [Verse 4]
    Your letters they all say that you're beside me now
    Then why do I feel alone?
    I'm standing on a ledge and your fine spider web
    Is fastening my ankle to a stone

    [Chorus]
    Now so long, Marianne, it's time that we began
    To laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again

    [Verse 5]
    For now I need your hidden love
    I'm cold as a new razor blade
    You left when I told you I was curious
    I never said that I was brave

    [Chorus]
    Oh so long, Marianne, it's time that we began
    To laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again

    [Verse 6]
    Oh, you are really such a pretty one
    I see you've gone and changed your name again
    And just when I climbed this whole mountainside
    To wash my eyelids in the rain

    [Chorus]
    Oh so long, Marianne, it's time that we began
    To laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again

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