Скачать или смотреть Kaddish for Leonard Cohen – George Elliott Clarke

George Elliott Clarke (Poet Laureate of Parliament for Canada) performed his poem "Kaddish for Leonard Cohen" with Susan Odle (susan o), Fred Guignion, Peter von Althen and Dave Draves on Jan. 14, 2017 at Irene's Pub in Ottawa. Music by Susan, whose new album is "20 Years". Here are the words:

Kaddish for Leonard Cohen

George Elliott Clarke
7th Parliamentary Poet Laureate (2016-17)
11 November 2016

This terrible, irritable dawn
This morning of Mourning
His obituary crowbars apart
Prophecy and Nostalgia

Always native to Heaven
Minting gleaming melodies
Freeing a nailed-down Christ
Obeying the mating-calls

......

Of mandolins and guitars, he
Never abstained from Liberty,
Never lost the Intelligence
Of Dylan-dark sunglasses

And light making masterpieces
Of shambles, or lighting up
Cages where lovers loll,
Lousy with tears and sighs….

......

Poet of Everything,
He transcended conclaves
Of critics, the murders
Of poets, all those copycats–

Sordid franchisees of blues–
Every presidency serving up
Immaculate Corruption, the stale,
white bread circulated with grease….

......

His insatiable suitcase,
Portaging Gog and Magog
(In eastern Quebec), Hydra,
Rue Main, Manhattan, Havana,

Pursued the ghosts of Glory–
Parliaments of movie screens–
Fiestas of butterflies, and secret
Eros, Eros, everywhere….

......

After auditing the News,
I suffered the insomnia
Of steel nails, heads battered
Until drowsy, woozy in wood.

Eternity expires as eyes close–
Or we succumb to sobbing….
But the honest poet voids
The dirty mind of Grief,

Knows the poet’s grave
Is his deathless poems–
Dark, remorseless Beauty–
Light that scalpels eyes open.