Notes from Audio Nirvana

It all started when someone drew my attention to Leonard Cohen's new movie, “Songs from the Road.” While waiting for the movie to hit the local theaters, I rented “I'm Your Man” and scoured YouTube for videos of Cohen's 2009 release, “Live in London.” Moved to tears and jaw-dropped with wonder, I downloaded the entire concert album from the iTunes Store.

I was in audio nirvana for days, free from worldly concerns, listening over and over, shaking my head in amazement. He's deep, deep, deep...as in his soul-searing recitation of “A Thousand Kisses Deep”:

“No turning from the threat of love,
No transcendental leap -
As witnessed here in time and blood
A thousand kisses deep.”

How could I have failed, until now, to notice the lyrics to “Hallelujah,” a brilliant homage to the power of the broken heart to praise:

“There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah.”

Or the profound teaching on the power of acceptance of things as they are in “Anthem,”

“The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.
...
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.”

I've known about this master's music since the 1960s, but I never really heard it the way I'm hearing it today. Maybe my heart has marinated long enough in its own juices to be sufficiently tenderized that the words can penetrate. Whatever it is, I'm being rocked to the core by the poetry, the elegance, the depth, the sensuality of the man, the music, the master: Leonard Cohen.

– Cathie Leavitt