Leonard Cohen — Book of Mercy “I,8”
3/6/202617 min
Have you ever watched, in awe, as a skilled gymnast or skater lifts off and completes a dizzying number of revolutions in less than a second before landing safely back down? That’s how you may feel upon reading the great Leonard Cohen’s urgent, dreamlike poem “I, 8” from Book of Mercy. In his telling of a man’s fall “from his high place” into “disgrace”, Cohen sends us on a short, 206-word journey that seamlessly weaves together narration, fiction, meditation, devotion, and prayer.
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Leonard Cohen had an artistic career that began in 1956 with the publication of his first book of poetry, Let Us Compare Mythologies. He published two novels, The Favourite Game and Beautiful Losers, and 10 books of poetry, most recently Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs and Book of Longing. During a recording career that spanned almost 50 years, he released 14 studio albums, the last of which, You Want It Darker, was released in 2016. Cohen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, and was awarded the Glenn Gould Prize in 2011. He died on November 7, 2016.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsPádraig Ó Tuama· Host0:02
My name is Pádraig Ó Tuama, and years ago I had a new friend, David Clare, and we were having a cup of coffee in Dublin, and we talked about poetry as we often do. And he said to me, had I ever read Book of Mercy by Leonard Cohen? And I hadn't. I was a fan of Leonard Cohen, but I hadn't read any of his poetry. And he produced a copy of it from his bag and gave it to me, and it was one of my favorite books. And then another friend a couple of years later, Peter Wilson, I'll call him out, borrowed the book and then kind of apologetically said to me, "I'm keeping that book because I need it." [laughs] I loved his audacity, and I have since purchased many copies of that book, and I can't hang on to any of them. I keep on giving them away. I feel like it's a book that wants to go places. I love it. It has changed me and changed the way I think, and it has risen to the very top of everything that I love about Leonard Cohen. Number eight from Leonard Cohen's Book of Mercy: In the eyes of men, he falls, and in his own eyes too. He falls from his high place. He trips on his achievement. He falls to you. He falls to know you. "It is sad," they say. "See his disgrace," say the ones at his heel. But he falls radiantly toward the light to