I should take the guitar up
to the balcony for one last
session of what in days
of more formal worship
I might have called
my Leonard Cohen Mass:
“A Bunch of Lonesome Heroes”
who are so down and out
they’re on the other side of it,
“So Long, Marianne”
and walking in a park
that stays green forever,
“Seems So Long Ago, Nancy”
about the girl we all knew
who committed suicide
in high school,
“If It Be Your Will,”
a psalm even David envies;
“Hallelujah,” “Stories of the Street”
and maybe “The Stranger Song,”
as enigmatic and haunting as ever,
but there is no end
to this Communion
administered by the poet-priest
whose Art has permeated
the world’s heart.
It may take
another soul steeped
in its own tears
to hear the beauty rising
in that dirge-like voice
up through those dregs
of minor chords,
but to one with such ears,
beauty shines brighter here
and love, requited or no,
is immortal.
