Inspired By Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen's strong spirituality was probably spiritually Jewish rather than Jewishly spiritual. Is that a useful comparison? I'm not certain, but I don't think so. Spirit is also wind in Hebrew, and the wind blows when and where it must to do what it must. Six Leonard Cohen songs inspired these six Jewish spiritual poems: Bird On A Wire, Dance Me To The End of Love, Everybody Knows, First We Take Manhattan, Halellujah, and Suzanne. I've watched his version of First We Take Manhattan countless times and for some reason I always associate it with American Jesus by Bad Religion. Sarah Bracha says American Jesus is a punk rock song. I guess so. Maybe. Punk is my part of the boom. Punk rock is, I think, more a musical sentiment than it is a musical genre, modernist music's antidote to technocracy's selfish gene. When I first heard punk it was like a tremontane, a north wind descending from the Bay of Lions, which I think is appropriate: Leonard Cohen's Hebrew name, Aryeh, means lion in English. Leonard Cohen's strong spirituality is like a wind: it goes where it must to influence who it must, and it is part of my ongoing development as a writer: I am a baffled poet rather than a baffled king. I know what Halel'u'yah means in Hebrew, but not how to explain it to you so you'd understand. The best I can do is try to say I love You in this song. Hopefully the words don't get in the way. Love, Reb A.