THIS 
ISN'T 
CHINA 
  
Hold me close  
and tell me what the world is like 
I don’t want to look outside 
I want to depend on your eyes 
and your lips  
I don’t want to feel anything 
but your hand 
on the old raw bumper 
I don’t want to feel anything else 
If you love the dead rocks 
and the huge rough pine trees 
Ok I like them too 
Tell me if the wind 
makes a pretty sound 
in the billion billion needles 
I’ll close my eyes and smile 
Tell me if it’s a good morning 
or a clear morning 
Tell me what the fuck kind of morning 
it is 
and I’ll buy it 
And get the dog 
to stop whining and barking  
This isn’t China 
nobody’s going to eat it 
It’s just going to get fed and petted 
Ok where were we? 
Ok go if you must. 
I’ll create the cosmos 
by myself 
I’ll let it all stick to me 
every fucking pine needle 
And I’ll broadcast my affection 
from this shaven dome 
360 degrees 
to all the dramatic vistas 
to all the mists and snows 
that moves across 
the shining mountains 
to the women bathing 
in the stream 
and combing their hair 
on the roofs 
to the voiceless ones 
who have petitioned me 
from their surprising silence 
to the poor in the heart 
(oh more and more to them) 
to all the thought-forms 
and leaking mental objects 
that you get up here 
at the end of your ghostly life 
 
  
  
 
  
Unpublished poem from one of the notebooks.
  
Copyright © 2002 Leonard Cohen.  
Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved. 
 
 
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