album cover,  songs of love and hate, leonard cohen 1971



CHAPTER TWO - Leonard Cohen
WEEK ONE. conversation by clair and brid

 

1

"It's four in the morning, the end of December, I'm writing you now just to see if you're better".  lenoard cohen

                                    ~  ~  ~ 


after being in my new nest for 2 weeks i brought a table from the car boot sale and got my record player out for the first time in many years.  the first album i played on it was 'songs of love and hate'.  what sincere company.

how many 4 o clocks in the morning do we see?...many less than 4 o clocks in the afternoon i would imagine...

ive often consisered which is the loneliest hour of the night, and i think lenoard cohen has it pinned...4 o clock being far enough away from the late bars and far enough away from peoples beginning of day.

on occasion that i find myself in 4 o clocks company i might remember him.  
clair

A chorus of birds announce afternoon tea perhaps while the 4 o clock sun finds a little cloudless spot to peep through -just long enough to brighten a March day.

Delicate lime green fluff balls of the pussy willow tree bobble and sway as the sun appears .

Birds fly in pairs.

Clumps of yellow buttercups peep out from the foot of a ditch,

Mother nature is exploding.A white horse swishes flies away with its tail.

The 4 o clock dawning that woke up the wanting sees  its reflection but can barely make it out.

It is soothed and sated and can hear a whisper of the words that came in early

'Love is at the heart of it all'.

 Brid

'the 4 o clock dawning that woke up the wanting'... nice... are we free of wanting when we are asleep?...or is it that we are just not aware of it and instead it filters into dreams and is perhapes remembered to us only when we awaken?

sleeping is such a mystery...im just thinking about whether there are any animals who do not sleep...i think some fish sleep with half a brain at once ...i was always curious, as a child, when my goldfish slept, because she never seem to stop swimming...
clair

Dreaming allows each us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.

Day dreams are more of our own design

A midday blank canvas might allow me to remember another December 4 o'clock afternoon..

A day when I  took you muffins and dreamed ............

My soul wanted an adventure and my heart paid the price.

But this March midday dream invites you to share a muffin again sometime.....

'That would be lovely 'you said.

and by 4 pm the ether knew and we were both contented 

Brid

i love that...the bit about dreaming allowing each one of us to be quitely and safely insane every night of our lives.

its pretty freeform its true, i recollected my own dreams this morning with a degree of astonishment..!

im writing to you now. a letter. carried from my home to yours.

all those lost handwritten words and letters, sent instead, by electronics.

but actaully, thinking about it, i did send two letters this week.  to my mum and my auntie.  its a real pleasure because i have some special and lovely paper and envelopes and some equally lovely stickers. and feathers.

when i went to post them i asked the man in the post office if he has any stamps with flowers on them.  looking a bit perplexed he pulled out some starwars looking ones. all black and gray.  i said that they werent very flowering and then he remembered he had some animal ones. they were as cute as flowers and i so chose the polar bear one. all white.

thinking about it is also sent a letter to lenoard cohen once.  full of poems.  i notice he hasnt got back to me. how rude ;)
hee hee
clair

I'm sure Leonard enjoyed your poems but just didn't get around to replying !!

I overheard a conversation on the train to Dublin. A gentleman seemed to be on the phone to his office and he said 'on the desk you will find two reports 'one is printed and the other is in my own hand'

I loved the idea of his own hand or hot from his hand.

I plan to write many letters but it sometimes takes me years to get around to it.

I wrote a letter in my head today as I cleaned the bathroom.

With great brush strokes of energy I told you in no uncertain terms what I thought of you.

Reeling me in like a fish and letting the line go whenever you took a fancy to.

I'm mad .mad  I told you

-do you know that this is a great way of getting jobs done and composing a letter.at the same time.

I may write it sometime or I may not but I really should get a scissors and cut the line.

Brid

hi brid, i like that conversation you overheard too. i LOVE overhearing stuff. i like hearing the humanity. thats whats great about trains.  little tiny windows into the private life people just cant help but let into trains...

is it different in ireland? ... cos here in england people dont generally talk to each other on trains.  i tend to but i'm an exception. and i dont as much as i used to. but i do feel to reach out. i can really feel to reach out...

clair

Clair -I think most Irish people like to talk no matter where they are and since the Celtic tiger ran away we have even more time to talk.

A great chat was been had at the supermarket checkout today between an elderly lady ,an elderly gentleman and the cashier .They were discussing the weather and one of them said

'I hear we are going to have a great sunny August '

and not one word about April ,May ,June or July .

Talk about living in the moment my daughter remarked outside the store.

Brid 

i see :)... do you think there is less lonlyness in ireland?

clair

Clair.

Loneliness is a terrible illness of modern society.People trying to buy a reason to live.

I would like to think that we are moving away from that now and are more aware of the emotional and spiritual needs of EVERYONE.

But just when we thought Ireland had hit rock bottom – or rather because we actually have hit it – suddenly there’s a bubbling of ideas about what we could and should be doing to make it a better place
Communities are realising the strength of their voice and the need for inclusion.

I  think we should invent another currency that belongs to the common people and let the commercial banks deal in their currency.

Maybe the old time barter system where we would do job for job.

'i think we should invent another currency that belongs to common people and let the commercial banks deal with their currency' 

good work brid, couldnt agree more.  nicely said.  could the currency be love? 

clair