A person at the party is
The poet Leonard Cohen but
‘No-one’ quite believes it to be him –
A poet perhaps –
A ‘Leonard’ or a ‘Bernard’ as may be –
These seldom seem a ‘someone’
To compose an elegiac first L.P.
Of which some speak because
Poets found at any given party
Incline to inspire to aspire
Flights of fancy into tight formation
Of ‘recognition’ ‘money’ and ‘success’
To modestly impress attractive people
They have ‘at last’ ‘become’ ‘someone’
In whom all might ‘believe’
The person at the party Michael
Horovitz assured me the next day
Had been Canadian poet Leonard Cohen
‘No-one’ had expected him to be
Recovered from the framed self-conscious sitting
In the photo on the cover of his C.B.S. L.P.
We sang a song from this new album
As we moved a heavy table
To the top room of the house in Notting Hill
Another ‘Porter’ (Cole) said of his song-craft –
‘I aim for poetry then swing a left’
There’s always a heavy ‘table’ needing moving
Sometimes there seems no-one else around
To help you – but The Desert
Fathers who advised
‘G-d attends on all who call upon Him
But He LOVES the ones who sing His Name’
Michael meant to make this anecdote
A poem ‘sometime’ long ago –
Now his table is Eternal Light and
Leonard is G-d’s favoured
Singing Cowboy
Bernard Saint
Illustration: Claire Palmer