Ode To Leonard

Hot is not the first word that comes to mind when thinking of Canada.

Canadian musician Leonard Cohen, however, is smoldering like the ash at the tip of a du Maurier. He has been on tour. Wearing a fedora and a suit, backed by an extraordinarily talented band and accompanied by three women with voices as deluxe as the cascade of classic curtains behind the stage, he came to Vancouver.

I knew I loved him already. He could have come out and taken the stage and sung his songs with little more than a bow and a flourish and I would have loved him still. But he came out and he romanced his audience. He preached, he wooed, and he prayed to his audience. He was indeed hot. He loves what he is doing up there with the other musicians and he loves the women whose voices lend his such depths.

Leonard Cohen’s lyrics are masterful. Your kids listen to one of his songs: Hallelujah is on the Shrek movie soundtrack. Our mothers listened to Leonard when they were burning candles in wine bottles in the 60’s. I play him in my kitchen and his lyrics, his humour and yes, his sorrows keep me good company.

His songs encompass so very much about the ordinary splendor and stumble of living and trying to love one another despite the messiness of our world.

On stage, he was like his poems in The Book Of Longing: at once dark and celebratory, sorrowful and playful, self-deprecating and uplifting. He sings about women in just about every song, even the ones about politics, even the ones about God.

As a mother, one of my touchstones is a line from the song Anthem:

“There is a crack in everything.
That’s how the light gets in.”

It helps to remind me that it is not possible to always get it right, that none of us are perfect. And so I despair less over the difficult times, the days when I feel I have not lived up to the task at hand, or loved well enough.

Maybe it is those dark days which in fact, let in the light.

Hallelujah.

This is an original ode for CanadaMomsBlog by EarnestGirl.
You can also find her writing on motherhood and messes at TheYummyMummyClub