Sunday, September 18, 2005

Me and Lennie

I feel a little closer to superstar poet/novelist/songwriter Leonard Cohen now that he's broke. There must be all kinds of irony in this gifted genius, "the patron saint of envy and the grocer of despair", now being in a less than enviable financial situation, having been swindled, by some of his closest advisors, out of the fortune he made from selling the rights to his songs and writing to Sony.

Cohen, at age 70, seems to be taking it all in stride, having apparently deepened his already philosophical outlook toward life in his several years of study at the Zen monastery on Mt. Baldy.

Though I feel bad for Cohen's loss, I am also selfishly glad that his destitution may make it necessary for him to go out on tour once again. I've never seen this Canadian legend perform live, and I would very much like to.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"grocer of despair"?
I always wondered what that line was.

flatlander said...

Yes, Leonard has been called this, on occasion--but he is not to be confused with the confectioner of desolation, or the haberdasher of hoplessness!