As I've mentioned before on this blog, I've adored Leonard Cohen's poetry and music ever since I was a teenager in the 1970s. People who say he's depressing, negative or can't sing just don't understand! The man was a genius.
And of course, death can't hold him down. Recently, there have been two big announcements about Canada's beloved bard --
(1) Commemorative Stamps!
As announced in
The Globe and Mail last week,
"[t]hree new stamps from Canada Post celebrate the late laureate of existential despair, with portraits displaying him in different stages of his life."
The first stamp shows him as a young man in 1967 at the start of his musical career. Leonard Cohen was already a noted poet and novelist in Canada at this point. He is squatting, as if poised to stand and grow upwards to reach his full potential.
The second stamp reproduces a 1988 photograph. Here Leonard Cohen is standing upright, tall and confident. having come into the full power of his musical career as a singer-songwriter. This is the period during which he wrote
Hallelujah, for example, which is probably his most famous and most covered song.
The final stamp shows an elderly Leonard Cohen in 2012, whimsically perched at the top of the image, looking upward to heaven. Always a spiritual seeker who wrestled with the Divine, he died in 2016, still grappling.
(2) Posthumous New Album!
At the time of his death, Leonard Cohen left a number of unfinished poems and songs which his son, Adam Cohen (also a singer-songwriter), promised to complete and release for him. This final album, entitled
Thanks for the Dance, will be available for purchase in November. One short spoken-word song,
The Goal, has just been made available --
Oh, that line -- "the neighbour returns my smile of defeat" -- classic Cohen! The art in the video is Leonard Cohen's work as well -- he often doodled little sketches in the margins of his manuscripts.
This album will be going on my Christmas list for sure this year!