14/Oct/2022. Watched.
My rating: 8.6/10.
I love Leonard Cohen. If there is a man who has influenced my writing the most in the past 3 to 4 years, its Leonard Cohen. If there is a man who is responsible for reviving my love for writing and reading poetry, its Leonard Cohen.
I have read two of his books, The Flame & The Book of Longing and I've listened to all of his albums multiple times. As a matter of fact, as I'm writing this piece, the final track of his album, Dear Heather (2004), is playing on the speaker; Tennesee Waltz (Live at Montreux Jazz Festival).
I wrote my first poem in the first standard, when I had an altercation with my music "teacher", and by the end of the affair I had declared that I could write a better song than the faecal propaganda written on the blackboard. That was my first run-in with the authority and my first dabble in writing creatively, even though it was my protest than my artistic expression. Time went by and I had lost my patience for poetry and school only worsened the wound.
Until years later, in 2019, when I watched a romance film by the title of, Take this Waltz (2011). I loved the film, but more so, I loved the track which they needle-dropped in its climactic sequence. I was absolutely gobsmacked. And its not an hyperbole when I say that all the breath was taken from me. I had never heard such lyrics, such voice, such music. It was dark and it was gentle and the world was anew!
I searched for the track and discovered that the film was named after the song itself and it was written and sung by a man by the name of Leonard Cohen, who had died in 2016, the same year my father had died. Leonard's songs are a comfort to me, especially this month, when my dearest friends are leaving our town for greener pastures. Leonard doesn't take away my loneliness but Leonard puts an arm around me and declares that he is lonely too. And thus, the two of us sit in the dark, writing and drinking and looking at the light.
Instead of a review for the documentary about the man, its a love letter to the man. And if there is any man who deserves it, its Leonard Cohen.
