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VI.  Thoughts on Leonard Cohen -- Andreas Schoter
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From: Andreas Schoter (asch@aisb.ed.ac.uk)
How to Write Haiku - A Discussion of the Work of Leonard Cohen
by Andreas Schoter
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It might seem odd -- what has Cohen's work got to do with the art
of haiku?  The poetry and songs of Leonard Cohen are, first of
all, long.  Well, compared to haiku anyway.  Secondly, they are
rarely about nature -- almost always the subject matter is the
vagaries of the human heart.  But there is, I think, something
about his work that strikes a chord with the haijin in me.

Sometimes, to be sure, he actually penned a haiku.  The
following, called "Summer Haiku" appears originally in his
collection of poems "The Spice-Box of Earth":

             Silence
             and a deeper silence
             when the crickets
             hesitate

This is classical: an image (the silence) and a contrast -- the
silence is really the sound of crickets, and only when they
stop...  Apart from the superficial matter of form this is a
haiku.  But it is really the only convincing example that I can
find in a recent comprehensive collection of his work, "Stranger
Music".  The following, called "My Room", appears originally in
the collection "The Energy of Slaves":

           Come down to my room
           I was thinking about you
           and I made a pass at myself

It's amusing; perhaps it's a modern senryu on longing?  The next,
also from "The Energy of Slaves" is called "Morocco"

           I brought a man his dinner
           He did not wish to look into my eyes
           He ate in peace

For me this is a good senryu -- it has a slightly bitter edge
(the man not acknowledging Cohen bringing his dinner) and again
there's the contrast, the man eats in peace.  But for the most
part Cohen's shorter poems are not haiku or senryu.  Consider
"Wheels, Fireclouds" originally from the collection "Flowers for
Hitler":

     I shot my eyes through the drawers of your empty coffins,
     I was loyal,
     I was the one who lifted up his face.

This is private, bordering on obscure.  It's certainly not
something that most haijin would produce.  Maybe, if Cohen is
perusing the inner landscape of his emotions, it is a haiku, or a
senryu at least.  But if so, then it has a very narrow audience
if we want one of the defining features of a haiku to be the
invoking of a parallel response in the reader.

So, why do I want to relate the work of Leonard Cohen to haiku,
and specifically to the writing of haiku?  Really, I want to draw
your attention to one piece in particular: it's called "How to
Speak Poetry" in the collection "Death of a Lady's Man", but I
think it might equally be called "How to Write Haiku".  Let's
consider some extracts from this piece...

First he says "The poem is nothing but information." No doubt
this appeals to the computer programmer in me!  But think about
haiku, think about Bill's image of haiku as photograph.  The
following longer extract makes the point:

"Think of the words as science, not as art.  They are a report.
You are speaking before a meeting of the Explorers' club of the
National Geographic Society.  These people know all the risks of
mountain climbing.  They honor you by taking this for granted.
If you rub their faces in it that is an insult to their
hospitality.  Tell them about the height of the mountain, the
equipment you used, be specific about the surfaces and the time
it took to scale it.  Do not work the audience for gasps and
sighs.  If you are worthy of gasps and sighs it will not be from
your appreciation of the event but from theirs."

When I read this it speaks to me directly of the nature of the
haiku.  The haiku is a direct report of a moment of perception;
it's impact comes from the recognition, in the reader, of that
moment!  At his best I think what Cohen writes are haiku of the
emotional lands, and sometimes with 'the stink of Zen'.  Consider
"Owning Everything", again from "The Spice-Box of Earth":

           You worry that I will leave you.
           I will not leave you.
           Only strangers travel.
           Owning everything,
           I have nowhere to go.

Chapter 44 of the Tao Te Ching says "When you realize there is
nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you." For me Leonard
Cohen is the haijin of the Tao of the human heart (if you and he
will for give the pretentious phrasing).  Finally, "I'd like to
read"

           I'd like to read
           one of the poems
           that drove me into poetry
           I can't remember one line
           or where to look

           The same thing
           happened with money
           girls and late evenings of talk

           Where are the poems
           that led me away
           from everything I loved

           to stand here
           naked with the thought of finding thee


All excerpts taken from "Stranger Music - selected poems and songs of
Leonard Cohen"  Published by Jonathan Cape, 1993.

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