The Flame: Poems, Notebooks, Lyrics, Drawings

by Leonard Cohen

“I came so far for beauty, I left so much behind.”

He lit the flames and he tended to them diligently. He studied and recorded their consequences. He was stimulated by their danger—he often spoke of other people’s art as not having enough “danger,” and he praised the “excitement of a thought that was in flames.”

In the prison of the gifted I was friendly with the guard

And what is more, old friend, you have a point. You have a point.

I am so grateful to my new anti-depressant

I was not caught Though many tried I live among you Well disguised

In places deep With roots entwined I live the life I left behind

First Hotel The red roofs darkened by the rain and the eternal beginning of a cold

So I feel somewhat like a charlatan to accept an award for an activity which I do not command. In other words, if I knew where the good songs came from, I’d go there more often.