Diana Raab

Tribute to Leonard Cohen
 
Two years before Cohen passed
I sat in the third row of his last concert--
while that octogenarian played three hours straight:
inspiring and haunting words about relationships,
joy and melancholy.
 
As he glanced my way, I wondered how
he would know about our connection
which had deep roots in Montreal,
where he and my three kids began their lives--
a string connecting us way beyond his songs.
 
From Cohen I learned creativity is both
delicious and horrible, but often graceful,
and us artists have no choice but to create.
 
His songs fueled my best poetry
during dark moments of loneliness,
delivering promises of reconciliation
and appreciation for the self.
 
Months before his own passing
he wrote a farewell letter to a dying
friend— “Our bodies are falling apart,”
knowing he’d follow soon.
“If you stretch out your hand,
I think you can reach mine,” he wrote.
 
His lust for life and tenacity for youthful vigor
has inspired me every day of my life,
especially now as I turn the page into my next decade.
 
You want it darker, he reminded himself
and all his listeners in his very last moments
of all his hauntings.

Diana Raab, MFA, PhD, is a memoirist, poet, speaker, and award-winning author of fourteen books of poetry and nonfiction. Her writings have been published and anthologized worldwide. Her latest book is HUMMINGBIRD: MESSAGES FROM MY ANCESTORS. (Modern History Press, January 2024). She writes for Psychology Today, The Wisdom Daily, and Thrive Global and is a guest writer for many others. Visit her at: dianaraab.com.