Fifteen Poems

by Leonard Cohen

This selection of poems by Leonard Cohen, one of the most acclaimed singer-songwriters in the world, is accompanied by twenty-four of his striking and provocative drawings.Cohen first made his name as a poet more than half a century ago and since then his achievements in poetry and music have made him an internationally revered figure. These fifteen poems, including “Death of a Lady’s Man,” “On Hearing a Name Long Unspoken,” and “The Embrace,” are drawn from across his remarkable career and appear here for the first time with his illustrations. With its lyrical intensity and sensual immediacy, Fifteen Poems offers a potent distillation of the genre-crossing genius of one of the most admired artists of our time.

Genres: Poetry, Music, Classics, Nonfiction

54 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 14, 2012

About the author

Leonard Norman Cohen was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963.

Cohen's earliest songs (many of which appeared on the 1968 album Songs of Leonard Cohen) were rooted in European folk music melodies and instrumentation, sung in a high baritone. The 1970s were a musically restless period in which his influences broadened to encompass pop, cabaret, and world music. Since the 1980s he has typically sung in lower registers (bass baritone, sometimes bass), with accompaniment from electronic synthesizers and female backing singers.

His work often explores the themes of religion, isolation, sexuality, and complex interpersonal relationships.

Cohen's songs and poetry have influenced many other singer-songwriters, and more than a thousand renditions of his work have been recorded. He has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour. Cohen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, 2008 for his status among the "highest and most influential echelon of songwriters".

Reviews

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let men numb names
scratch winds that blow
listen to the stories
but what you know you know

And knowing is enough
for mountains such as these
where nothing long remains
houses walls or trees

In the recent episode of This is Us, Nicky and Jack during their younger days bonded over Leonard Cohen's songs.
"Cohen is not a songwriter, he is a poet.
His songs-- poems."

This is my first book of Leonard Cohen. Haven't listened to much of his songs. Only have heard of his love story from the letter he wrote --
"Know that I am so close behind you that if you stretch out your hand, I think you can reach mine"

The book is a good collection of poems and illustrations to have begun with, to get to know Cohen. My favorite of the lot would be
Death of a Lady's Man, You Have the Lovers and The Night Comes On


Death of a Lady's Man
...
And the last time that I saw her
she was living with a boy
who gives her soul an empty room
and gives her body joy.

So the great affair is over
but whoever would have guessed
it would leave us all so vacant
and so deeply unimpressed.
It’s like our visit to the moon
or to that other star:
I guess you go for nothing
if you really want to go that far.


I reread the poems and did a follow-up on online forums to understand better.

Leonard Cohen about You Have the Lovers

It’s just a sense that I was privileged; the sunlight, the woman, the child, the table, the work, the gardenia, the order, the mutual respect and honour that we gave to each other--that’s really what matters.... I don’t remember how we split up, somehow we just moved and we just separated. The periods of separations became longer and longer, and then somehow it collapsed. Kind of weightlessly, like ashes falling. There was no confrontation, there was no discussion, in fact I don’t remember how it happened. She was in Oslo, I was in New York struggling to make a living, and she was, I suppose, struggling to find some sort of situation, to take care of the child, and the distances grew and grew until we were leading different lives....


Reminded me so much of my first love and how nostalgic as well as sad it makes me still. Love that organically dies out is hard to let go when reminiscing but momentarily it must have only made complete sense. Something about questions left unanswered eh?!

While looking up in the blog, a David26 has written
"So how stupid is sometimes to waste time like this, being faithful to a dead relationship."

"Alexa, play So Long, Marianne"

[Luisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

~10% fantastisch

„You fucking whore, I thought that you were really interested in music. I thought your heart was somewhat sorrowful. I might have gone with you under the desk and eaten a soft-boiled egg. I'm going to tell my baby brother not to do what I have done. I'm going to tune you until the string breaks. The Communists do not know how evil you really are. […]“

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

His poems, his drawings, although not new to me, always shadow my steps towards new emotions, new discoveries, new ways of gazing upon the world.

[Kumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are only familiar with Leonard Cohen through his songs, (or if you are not familiar with him at all - in which case you should go use YouTube) this Kindle Single is an easy introduction to his poetry. Fifteen Poems collects some of his most accessible poetry from his various books. The recontextualization from putting poems written in different decades together gives the meanings a slight variation - i guess. I mean, it surprisingly works as a collection. Also, the single has drawings by the artist - some reminded me of John Lennon's In His Own Words, but of course these are much superior. And, I think, quite a few of them have been published for the first time. Though I may be wrong.

If you pick this up, don't rush through it - give it time to envelop you. Or if you do rush through anyways, keep coming back to it for a few days. Because, i don't know why, but i think it will be good to do so.

[Francesca Deakin · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I am not mistaken, Cohen did both the poetry in this collection, as well as the corresponding art to said qork. I adored his poem choices, and his drawing style was captivating and fitting. It was great to see how visually minded people view poetry in the way that they understand best. Definitely made my reading experience much more enjoyable.

[Leela Shamash]

thank you father cohen 🤍

[Kathryn Tso]

not really a book but interesting, I do not think I really got a lot of them but I’d read a full collection of his some day

[Teemu Helle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ohut kokoelma, mutta pari erityisen painava runoa kompensoi.

[Nicole Tartaglia · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite was definitely "On Hearing A Name Long Unspoken"


Cohen has some strange art but it's exciting to see.

[Camilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fifteen Poems tracks Leonard Cohen's work throughout his career, from Let Us Compare Mythologies in 1956 to Stranger Music, published 1993. His earlier work is represented far more widely than his later, but the poem choices are good; they show the growth of his writing while also being enjoyable poems in their own right. However, this is not a "best of" collection. Despite the subjective nature of poetry I can guarantee few would call this Cohen's finest. My personal favorite in the collection is "Beneath My Hands" from The Spice-Box of Earth. The others, while decent poems, did not leave a lasting impression besides a line here or there. Also worth noting is that Cohen's prose poems are represented with "The News You Really Hate" and "I Draw Aside the Curtain," for fans of that sort of thing. As for myself, I found the collection enjoyable but a bit forgettable.

[Karsten · Rating 2 out of 5]

Way more personal pronouns than actual personality here. Except in the drawings, which I enjoyed, especially the one with guitars buried in snow in front of a row of townhouses. Some of the poems nail their images, too: 'The windy sky's a locket for your hair...'

[Terri R · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like some of his songs and the artwork but not these poems - too dark for me.

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly, love of someone's music does not translate into love of someone's poetry. I could read his lyrics for days.

[Rachel Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just don't get poetry.

[R. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Surprising given how much I enjoy his music, but I only dug maybe one of these poems and the rest read like the stuff depressed teenagers write.

[Mike Futcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short and sweet collection of Leonard Cohen's poetry. The poems selected were good choices, though they are not among his absolute best. (Note: these are not new poems, but are taken from his previous collections, going right back to 1956's Let Us Compare Mythologies). Nevertheless, they do reflect the man's style of poetry well and consequently, if you are new to Cohen and unsure whether you will like his poetry, this is an ideal taster. It is very short, it is available for pennies on Amazon and can be fired directly to your computer or Kindle in seconds.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A powerful anthology containing some of Cohen's greatest poems. I love the choices made in this collection as they highlight the earlier works, which show that even at this later stage in Cohen's life, Cohen was reflecting on his past works and their meaning.

Great stuff. A simple and swift introduction to Cohen's poetry.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've long thought that Leonard Cohen was one of the greatest songwriters, but until now I've never read any of his poems or novels. I can't say these poems left me as impressed as many of his songs have, but they were still good and worth a read. The 15 poems selected here are from multiple collections, decades apart. This also includes some of his artwork.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read! I knew some of these poems from other collections, plus one or two that became songs, but it was fun to see them in conversation with different works. Also fun to see Cohen's weird little art. Huge fan of Montreal Kitchen, it made me chuckle

[T.S.S. Fulk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea.

[Jack Burnham]

Have always preferred the more romantically anguished Leonard stuff to the biblical stuff and thankfully there's a good balance here

[Micaela *CLONAZINE* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mi hermana tenía un libro de Leonard Cohen en su biblioteca y recién me di cuenta!!!. Amo su poesía!!!

[Nina Roman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This January, I’m experiencing a Leonard Cohen kick. Legendary poet

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some ok poems, but some that are absolutely dreadful. Cohen has some inspired and artful lyrics. But as this collection of his poetry shows, he wrote some awful garbage too.

[John Eliot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let's make it clear, if I could only take on CD/LP to a desert island it would be by Leonard Cohen. And then I would have diffficutly choosing which. I have seen him on all his tours since 1974.
I don't rate him as a poet on paper though and I think there are better collections than this 'greatest hits' of poems. There are a couple which are excellent. The illustrations for the most part are very good. But if you are to buy a collection of his verse, then maybe something like Energy of Slaves.
John Eliot author of Ssh

[Sameen Shakya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leonard Cohen was an American author and singer. He's perhaps best known for his music career and while I knew he was a poet first and foremost but I didn’t know his poetry was this good.

There is such humanity in Cohen's poetry, and by that I do mean the uncouth, perverted, yet beautiful kind. He writes about love like a child discovering it for the first time, and he manages to do the same with every single poem.

God, he's so magical. In a just world we would know him for his poetry foremostly, but I'm just glad we had him.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cheap and cheerful ebook of a few of Cohen's poems (not songs). As such, it encourages a quick and shallow reading. I wasn't grabbed by much in here, but one included here may grab me properly when I go through Stranger Things, the selected works I picked up. (I think also, I've been reading a lot of complex poetry recently, so Cohen's style seems a bit limp by comparison. I hope to get back to it soon, hopefully with a clearer head.)

[Lois · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slightly disappointed that this was a selection of previously published poems rather than new ones (my mistake!), but enjoyed the arrangement and particularly the addition of illustrations, one of which included a poem that I preferred over all the ones included in the text itself—'The lie in what's holy, the light in what's not'...

[Abiesha Abiola Budiman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Multifaceted

While a number of these poems were enjoyable and relatable, I will still dwell deeply and preferably in Leonard Cohen’s musical melodies.

Nevertheless:

“When you call me close to tell me your body is not beautiful I want to summon the eyes and hidden mouths of stone and light and water to testify against you.”

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this small selection of poems; had read them before across the anthologies and original volumes but a nice grouping of a small selection - designed for Kindle - and paired up with some previously unseen drawings.