This Is For You ~ A Poem By Leonard Cohen

This is for you

it is my full heart

it is the book I meant to read you

when we were old

Now I am a shadow

I am restless as an empire

You are the woman

who released me

I saw you watching the moon

you did not hesitate

to love me with it

I saw you honouring the windflowers

caught in the rocks

you loved me with them

On the smooth sand

between pebbles & shoreline

you welcomed me into the circle

more than a guest

All this happened

in the truth of time

in the truth of flesh

I saw you with a child

you brought me to his perfume

and his visions

without demand of blood

On so many wooden tables

adorned with food and candles

a thousand sacraments

which you carried in your basket

I visited my clay

I visited my birth

until I became small enough

and frightened enough

to be born again

I wanted you for your beauty

you gave me more than yourself

you shared your beauty

this I only learned tonight

as I recall the mirrors

you walked away from

after you had given them

whatever they claimed

for my initiation

Now I am a shadow

I long for the boundaries

of my wandering

and I move

with the energy of your prayer

and I move

in the direction of your prayer

for you are kneeling

like a bouquet

in a cave of bone

behind my forehead

and I move toward a love

you have dreamed for me

The music is based on his song 'Who By Fire'.

'This Is For You' from Selected Poems 1956-68