I would have been shocked if I had not loved this collection of Leonard Cohen's poems, as he has been one of my favorite poet/songwriters for decades. His poetry continued to plumb his deep yearnings -- sexual, philosophical, and spiritual. A reminder of how much his voice is missed. ( )

A collection of poems, including many written during Cohen's time in a Zen monastery. Anyone familiar with any of his other work will probably find the themes and contents here unsurprising: sex, love, loneliness, and desire, the sacred and the earthy and the places where the two meet, anger and sadness and wistfulness and acceptance, the darkness and the light in the world, all intermixed with little personal moments and glimmerings of self-aware, self-deprecating humor.

Some of these poems instantly made sense to me and evoked thoughts and feelings I could relate to. Others were obscure enough that I suspect only the poet himself really knew who and what they were about. Most fell somewhere in between, which seems like a pretty good place for poetry to fall. Although, I must say, I'm usually not a very good reader of poetry (or poetry isn't a particularly good medium for me as a reader), as I often react poorly when I don't feel like I "get" a poem. It makes me feel uncultured and dumb, I suppose, which makes me feel resentful. But Leonard Cohen, as I realized the last time I read one of his poetry collections, circumvents that problem for me entirely, because I take his poems in exactly the spirit I take his song lyrics -- indeed, not a few of these have also appeared as songs on his albums -- and I've never felt dumb not understanding a song lyric, only interested in what I could make out of it for myself. And, as with his music, there is a lot to be made out of these poems. ( )

Poems where the author looks back on his past and his current life and is not happy where he is. Some poems rhyme. Some are verse.

I found most of these poems and drawings depressing. I did like Alexandra Leaving and Boogie Street. ( )

This book is written for more than twenty years, from India to Mt. Baldy. Leonard Cohen always has his way of writing lyrics for his music. Same with this compilation of poetries, they can sing by themselves. Some of his poems were brutally honest about his feelings--sensual reverie, spirituality, and desire. The poetries are accompanied by his sometimes provocative sketches that give us more depth to the story. However, some poetries are not as strong as the other. And much like other poetry books that I've read, there are some works that I can’t relate to. Regardless, it inspired me to write poetry again but with the courage to be more honest.⁣

“You should go
from place to place
recovering the poems
that have been written for you
to which you can affix your signature.
Don't discuss these matters
with anyone.
Retrieve. Retrieve.
When the basket is full
someone will appear
to whom you can present it.” ( )

To be fair, I'm not the biggest fan of poetry and included in this book is a note from the poet himself that it's not intended to be read cover to cover (but really, how else do you read a book?). There were poems I loved, ones I found eerie, and a few where I think the poet's humor missed its mark. And likely, someone who really loves poetry would get a lot more out of this volume and could tell me out my interpretations are wrong. Overall, this wasn't a bad book, but I think it might be more enjoyable to the reader who likes to skip around in a text. ( )