Read an Excerpt
“Avoid the Flourish” — Leonard Cohen, “How to Speak Poetry”
it was meant to be simple
we loved it and it was simple
a plain pine box as
hearts broke to cries of hallelujah
it was meant to be
simple
it was meant
to be
it was
meant
it had meaning
the people agree
as they post versions of Hallelujahs
as others post telling them
they are posting the wrong
Hallelujahs
a fight broke out
about who Famous Blue Raincoat
meant more to
nostalgia for a lost love
or whisper singing in bed
as a sign of contemporary intimacy
who soothes your insomnia at ‘4 in the morning/end of December’?
it was a gravel voice, a gravelly voice
it was profound and it sang out to the hills
it was always a hymn, it was always an anthem
it went ‘a thousand kisses deep’ or it broke open
‘the crack to let the light in’
it was many things
to many people
it was always a dance, always a poem
always thinly veiled fiction
it was beautiful and it was loser-ish
it was mine more than yours
yours more than mine
it was trouble for a troubled time
it was humility in the crease of greatness
it was always an epic, an ode
it made you cry every time
it unleashed you, untethered
it made you freer, it let you off
your flight, light, bright
it was always surrender
it was always trying to figure you out
it was always helping you, giving you courage
it was fragments and pieces, it was notions
it was always deep understanding
it was eventually
it was soft and you loved it
it was always from a distance
it was always ‘you look good when you’re tired’
always ‘you look like you could go on forever.’