Aging Poet Put to Song / Tribute to a Poet in Concert

 

Look deeper into

your heart.

Look deeper into

your soul.

Look deeper into

the circumstance

of growing old.

Last night at a concert

an aging poet

was put to song.

He ran,

kneeled in singing prayer and

released his life

into the air

and Into thirty thousand ears.

Hearts, minds and

souls consumed

each breath

one million kisses deep,

accompanied

by three muses on his right

and the music of

mandolins, bouzoukis

organs and guitars playing,

all bathed in light.

His eyes were shut tightly

as if dead or blind,

hunched over,

pacing back and forth

and facing down.

Self deprecating,

fedora coming off and on,

his greying head,

he spoke of romance,

with the authority of a satyr,

of love with the pathos of an Orpheus,

and like Endymion

In his sleep.

He spoke of

Love, sex, Christ and G_d,

of growing old,

and of the impossible odds,

shrouded

In the darkness

except for the light

that shone

above his head.

The high priest

of love and verse,

gently moved

from his autumn lyric tower,

into winter with his song

still dripping on his lips,

with beauty in his soul,

swing still left in hips,

perfectly understanding

the circumstance of

growing old.

He sang lamenting youth,

and Inspiring death

from depths ,

with sweet  bold

new breaths,

each

a thousand kisses deep,

and raising angels.

For Leonard Cohen

From ” A Winter Muse 12/21/12″ by PWChaltas