Dear Leonard (an ode to Leonard Cohen)

Dear Leonard I write you today
my proposal in song
My struggle lies where you are strong
I've wrestled with words for so very long

Line after line
as each conversation was wrung,
pinned to the ground, silence won
Started and ended
before I'd begun

I'll lend you the blue of my eye
and a body still young
the voice of an angel, sweet sound
from my guitar and tongue
If you lend me the lines of your years
and the ease of your song
Inside this bargain, we'll both belong

Dear Leonard please understand
this is only a loan
While I’ll be the skin to your bone
I long for sacred hymns of my own


Yes I’d call to sing you the phone book,
that old tired tome
yet onto the fire it's thrown
Were you the author
we'd still take her home


I'll lend you the blue of my eye
and a body still young
the voice of an angel, sweet sound
from my guitar and tongue
If you lend me the lines of your years
and the ease of your song
Inside this bargain, we'll both belong


Should I kneel and praise the son?
Climb your mountain
take of vow of none?
Is that where your
confidence comes from?
Your holy audience of one?


No I’ve never believed in my soul
No poet, my stories untold
I swallow the seeds of them whole
while yours still grow...


Dear Leonard it’s late and
I really should let you go
You've helped me
more than you know
Using you as you did her
And that’s how it goes


I'll lend you the blue of my eye
and a body still young
the voice of an angel, sweet sound
from my guitar and tongue
If you lend me the lines of your years
and the ease of your song
Inside this bargain, we'll both belong


Dear Leonard I write you today
My proposal in song