Waiting For The Future To Come

Whetherwise

The Cradle Of The Best And The Worst

Take One Last Look At This Sacred Heart Before It Blows

Waiting For The Miracle To Come

We

It is in love that we are made;
In love we disappear.

 — Leonard Cohen

The Dreamers Ride Against The Man Of Action

But you stand there so nice, in your blizzard of ice,

oh please let me come into the storm.

When

Nothing left to do
when you know that you've been taken.
Nothing left to do
when you're begging for a crumb
Nothing left to do
when you've got to go on waiting
waiting for the miracle to come.
…
When you've fallen on the highway
and you're lying in the rain,
and they ask you how you're doing
of course you'll say you can't complain --
If you're squeezed for information,
that's when you've got to play it dumb:
You just say you're out there waiting
for the miracle, for the miracle to come.

 — Leonard Cohen 'Waiting For The Miracle'

Doing Your Duty

And I thank you,
I thank you
for doing your duty,
you keepers of truth,
you guardians of beauty.
Your vision is right,
my vision is wrong,
I'm sorry for smudging
the air with my song.

 — Leonard Cohen 'A Singer Must Die'

For Nothing

So the great affair is over
but whoever would have guessed
it would leave us all so vacant
and so deeply unimpressed
It's like our visit to the moon
or to that other star
I guess you go for nothing
if you really want to go that far.

 — Leonard Cohen 'Death Of A Ladies' Man'

For Awhile

I choose the rooms that I live in with care,
the windows are small and the walls almost bare,
there's only one bed and there's only one prayer;
I listen all night for your step on the stair.

But I know from your eyes
and I know from your smile
that tonight will be fine,
will be fine, will be fine, will be fine
for a while.

— Leonard Cohen 'Tonight Will Be Fine'

The Lightness Of Being

So come, my friends, be not afraid.
We are so lightly here.
It is in love that we are made;
In love we disappear.
— Leonard Cohen 'Boogie Street'

Always Want Again

Just take this longing from my tongue
all the lonely things my hands have done.
Let me see your beauty broken down
like you would do for one your love.
— Leonard Cohen 'Take This Longing'

Political Economy

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
— Leonard Cohen 'Everybody Knows'

Now, you can say that I've grown bitter but of this you may be sure:
The rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor
— Leonard Cohen 'Tower Of Song'

The Soul Proprietor

This mental space is occupied and everything is mine.
— Leonard Cohen 'Death Of A Ladies' Man'

Indifference To The Suffering Of Others

Looked through the paper.
Makes you want to cry.
Nobody cares if the people
Live or die.
— Leonard Cohen 'In My Secret Life'

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along
— WH Auden 'Musée Des Beaux Arts'

It's despair at the lack of feeling, of love, of reason in the world. It's despair that anyone can even contemplate the idea of dropping a bomb or ordering that it should be dropped. It's despair that so few of us care. It's despair that there's so much brutality and callousness in the world.
— John Fowles 'The Collector'

A most depressing thing occurs
But no-one minds and no-one stirs,
Which means you've ended up with two
Depressing things depressing you.
— Michæl Leunig 'The Two Depressing Things'

How nice — to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive.
— Kurt Vonnegut

Away From The Shoals

You live your life as if it's real,
a thousand kisses deep.
— Leonard Cohen 'A Thousand Kisses Deep'

Jealous Guard

But whose head is this she's dancing with on the threshing floor
whose darkness deepens in her arms a little more
— Leonard Cohen 'The Gypsy's Wife'

The Prayer Of Power

I can't run no more
with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places
say their prayers out loud.
— Leonard Cohen 'Anthem'