ancientcowboyghost's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
4.75
anpaul98's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Misogyny
stupidpieceofhuman's review against another edition
5.0
this is the second leonard cohen book i have read, and that too in this same year. after field commander cohen impressed me with his magnum opus "beautiful losers", he enthralled me with this book of poems. man, oh man! what poems they are! astounding, hurting, burned with desire, longing, and lovelessness. he again mesmerised me with no inhibition but with a power so shy that i felt comfortable snuggled in the poems. beautiful.
kingjason's review against another edition
4.0
Leonard Cohen was a great singer, amazing stature on stage, great voice and brilliant song writer. This is the first book of poetry I've read by him and i've been surprised by just how insecure he was, at times he seems so lonely and at others he is doubting himself, including at one point his voice! Wha??? He has one of the best sounding voices in music. It's amazing what a bit of poetry can reveal about a person.
Some good poems here, a few made me laugh, like the threat against Norman Mailer and this one:
"I did not know
until you walked away
you had the perfect ass
Forgive me
for not falling in love
with your face or your conversation"
Some are incredibly bleak:
"I could not wait for you
to find me dead in a rented room
with my sunglasses dusty
on the card table
So once again
I tried to set my throat on fire
this time in silence
and not thinking of you at all
(I had so much time to kill)"
This was a real good place to start reading his poetry and I'll be checking out more. Here is my favourite from the book, shows what a rebel he was.
"Any system you contrive without us
will be brought down
We warned you before
and nothing that you built has stood
Hear it as you lean over your blueprint
Hear it as you roll up your sleeve
Hear it once again
Any system you contrive without us
will be brought down
You have your drugs
You have your guns
You have your Pyramids your Pentagons
With all your grass and bullets
you cannot hunt us any more
All that we disclose of ourselves forever
is this warning
Nothing that you built has stood
Any system you contrive without us
will be brought down"
Blog review> https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2020/06/26/the-energy-of-slaves-by-leonard-cohen/
Some good poems here, a few made me laugh, like the threat against Norman Mailer and this one:
"I did not know
until you walked away
you had the perfect ass
Forgive me
for not falling in love
with your face or your conversation"
Some are incredibly bleak:
"I could not wait for you
to find me dead in a rented room
with my sunglasses dusty
on the card table
So once again
I tried to set my throat on fire
this time in silence
and not thinking of you at all
(I had so much time to kill)"
This was a real good place to start reading his poetry and I'll be checking out more. Here is my favourite from the book, shows what a rebel he was.
"Any system you contrive without us
will be brought down
We warned you before
and nothing that you built has stood
Hear it as you lean over your blueprint
Hear it as you roll up your sleeve
Hear it once again
Any system you contrive without us
will be brought down
You have your drugs
You have your guns
You have your Pyramids your Pentagons
With all your grass and bullets
you cannot hunt us any more
All that we disclose of ourselves forever
is this warning
Nothing that you built has stood
Any system you contrive without us
will be brought down"
Blog review> https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2020/06/26/the-energy-of-slaves-by-leonard-cohen/
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