BOOK OF LONGING  
(DEAR READER) 
 
I can´t make the hills 
The system is shot 
I´m living on pills 
for which I thank G-d 
 
There´s sun in the leaves 
and birds in the tree. 
Nobody believes 
it´s written by Thee. 
 
I used to be song 
I used to be cock 
but time is long gone 
past my laughingstock 
 
I bid you good-bye 
There´s nothing to add 
I´ve tried and I try 
to stop going mad 
 
I followed the course 
from chaos to art 
My dick was the horse 
my life was the cart 
 
I´m back at my desk 
(the end of the line) 
a bee in my breast 
a snake in my spine 
 
The silverware shines 
that my mother left 
to me when she died 
fulfilled and bereft 
 
My leash is too long 
I think that I´m free 
I´d leap at the young 
but I´m sixty-three 
 
I know what I want 
It took many lives 
I´m cured by the cunt 
I´m killed by the eyes 
 
The sorrows are real 
as froth on the wave 
as shit on the beach 
the city´s disgrace 
 
Who cares what I say 
I´m not who I was 
I´m paid what I pay 
I´m always in love 
 
The summer won´t come 
´till I go to bed 
The birds will return 
when the dog is dead 
 
You can´t say it right 
when you touch yourself 
But truth´s not advice 
It is total health 
 
The crap on my back 
the piss in my face 
but happy at last 
in the Holy Place 
 
You can´t go too deep 
if you want to swim 
where the mermaids weep 
out of love for Him 
 
I`m nothing but lust 
I´m nothing but pain 
I did these mistrust 
but Never Again 
 
I say what I want 
for I am the Child 
of G-d coming home 
and His Wife gone wild 
 
I don´t need a thing 
I use what I have 
a moth-eaten wing 
a worm cut in half 
 
With these I invoke 
The Name to draw nigh 
I´m clamped in a stock 
to hold my head high 
 
My animal howls 
My angel´s upset 
And deep in my bowels 
the shit of regret 
 
You can´t stop a man 
from loving too much 
I´m still licking stamps 
from trying it once 
 
My pen is too wet 
My ink is too black 
The Winner won´t get 
his foot on the track 
 
But the one like me 
with light in her eye 
is utterly free 
to crawl or to fly 
 
And she´ll know the path 
I carved through the pain 
my will cut in half 
and Freedom between 
 
I´ll meet her one day 
when the time is right 
for me to display 
my flare in the night 
 
for the space in space 
to cough up the Word 
that seals our Embrace 
unharmed and unheard 
 
And Mercy at last 
for one doubled up 
and tied to the mast 
with the flags of love 
 
And thank´s be to you 
for helping me out 
when Youth had no clue 
what´s it all about 
 
Your kindness is kind 
your trueness is true 
I pray that you´ll find 
your Beloved, too 
 
as I have found mine 
where I´d never look: 
in the threaded spine 
of my Longing Book. 
 
Los Angeles 
March 22, 1998 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
Copyright © 1998 by Leonard Cohen.  Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
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