Geoffrey Wren (c)
Eclipse
For Kirk Ragged as the moon, still as the water, this night pulls me back and forth crossing time and space and place, past all forgetting. Remembering only that one eclipse. Laying in the back of your flatbed truck Flat on our backs and lying. Cobweb-spinning half truths and dreams Or was it half-dreams and truths. Eyes half closed One joint between us. The slow glow of your cigarette, vampire tails of smoke, whispering demon myths and mists and occult stories of lost civilizations and ruin. You were the lover I never had. The best friend. The dealer from The Stranger Song. The one who opened vistas. Meth slender, tender, sometimes mean. You gave me Keats and The Four Quartets. Sartre and Leonard Cohen. The first two albums at once and then, later, the poetry. Beautiful losers- like us, you said and laughed. You taught me to release the lowest Nico registers of my voice. I had the timbre You taught me depth. Playing Marianne on your 12-string guitar until your fingers bled. And I got the notes just right. A high flying night rider, fueled by speed and black coffee, you would take me down the cliffs to Ocean Beach where we listened to midnight waves and gulls and drunken revelers, had tea and oranges that came all the way from China, and recited poetry. You gave me my first notebook. And that one night chasing the dark of the moon, you gave me the lunar eclipse. Bright and quiet as the stars, still as death, just-cresting moonlight grazing your cheek, you held my hand, tightly, as we looked at the sky. Sing "Suzanne" you said. So I did. April 16, 2021 Bio: Joan Hawkins is a Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at Indiana University Bloomington. She has written extensively on horror and the avant-garde. Her creative work has appeared in Avalanches in Poetry, n+1, Performing Arts Journal, The Ryder, and Sand. Her most recent book is an anthology William S. Burroughs Cutting up the Century (co-edited with Alex Wermer-Colan). She has been a Leonard Cohen fan since she heard his first two albums at age 16. Leonard Cohen and Edie Sedgwick at the Chelsea Hotel by Joan Hawkins Wonderful Artwork from Avalanches in Poetry Writings & Art Inspired by Leonard Cohen by artist/writer Geoffrey Wren 4 poems from Robert Frede Kenter in Avalanches in Poetry 5 poems inspired by Leonard Cohen by Robert Frede Kenter (Before I Turn Into Gold Day) All of the poems (revised) from Avalanches in Poetry for Leonard Cohen Week by David L O’Nan Avalanches in Poetry 2 Entry: Peter and the Sea of G by Carrie Sword Avalanches in Poetry 2 entry: Poetry by Lisa Alletson Avalanches in Poetry 2 entries by Peter Hague : “I Did Not Want it Darker””Between Leonards” “Following Leonard”
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