A blaze of light in every word….

‘There’s a blaze of light in every word

It doesn’t matter which you heard, 

the Holy, or the Broken. Hallelujah.’

Some poets and dreamers have been particularly generous in their contributions to the forming, the languaging, of what it means to be a human person. Psychotherapy is about this formation. Good therapy wonders as it wanders, seeking a form for the chaotic and the random which will allow a kind of sense to emerge. Leonard Cohen has been one of my interpreters in this journey of encounter. His luminosity has often pierced a darkness I was in, offering a way of understanding something which just might edge me towards more wholeness. So many poets whisper in my ear during my daily work with clients. I am grateful to them all.

Poetry encapsulates feelings which can not be rationalised. A poetic form keeps the moment alive a little more, it offers a container, a form for a vague and possibly little understood piece. A Haiku which falls in to the notes of a supervision session can reveal more  of the dynamics of the matter at hand than all my clever formulations. A song lyric recalled on the way home after a difficult meeting with a client can be the fishing line and hook  which catches the elusive, deep down pain blighting the life of the person seeking my help (or my own pain, hooked by the work……).

I wanted to offer a Cohen lyric as a headstone for him in this small corner of the world. I have settled on this one. This song is a way of learning about compassion, mourning, the opening of the heart through pain. I have often written of the opening of the heart through beauty. Today, a poem about the heart opening through pain.

So, from the album ‘Ten New Songs’ (2001), Here It Is.    My love, Goodbye.

Here is your crown

And your seal and rings

And here is your love

For all things.

 

Here is your cart,

And your cardboard and piss

And here is your love

For all of this.

 

May everyone live,

And may everyone die.

Hello, my love,

And my love, Goodbye.

 

Here is your wine,

And your drunken fall

And here is your love.

Your love for it all.

 

Here is your sickness.

Your bed and your pan

And here is your love

For the woman, the man.

 

May everyone live,

And may everyone die.

Hello, my love,

And, my love, Goodbye.

 

And here is the night,

The night has begun

And here is your death

In the heart of your son.

 

And here is the dawn,

(Until death do us part)

And here is your death,

In your daughter’s heart.

 

May everyone live,

And may everyone die.

Hello, my love,

And, my love, Goodbye.

 

And here you are hurried,

And here you are gone

And here is the love,

That it’s all built upon.

 

Here is your cross,

Your nails and your hill

And here is your love,

That lists where it will.

 

May everyone live,

And may everyone die.

Hello, my love,

And my love, Goodbye.

 

(Cohen, and Robinson)