Tag Archives: Leonard Cohen

“ A Thousand Kisses Deep”

Posted on September 25, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

“We don’t write the play, we don’t produce it, we don’t direct it , and we are not even actors in it. Everybody eventually comes to the conclusion that things are not unfolding exactly the way they wanted, and that … Continue reading →

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August arrives in the dark…etc.

Posted on August 1, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

“But most urgent on my list of appreciation are those of you who have welcomed my tunes into your lives, into your kitchens when you’re doing the dishes, in your bedrooms, in your courting and conceiving, into those nights of … Continue reading →

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Who By Fire

Posted on February 19, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

And who by fire, who by water Who in the sunshine, who in the night time Who by high ordeal, who by common trial Who in your merry merry month of May, who by very slow decay And who shall … Continue reading →

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We are moving into a period of bewilderment

Posted on December 31, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

“We are moving into a period of bewilderment, a curious moment in which people find light in the midst of despair, and vertigo at the summit of their hopes. It is a religious moment also, and here is the danger. … Continue reading →

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in Vienna

Posted on August 8, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

Now in Vienna there’s ten pretty women There’s a shoulder where death comes to cry There’s a lobby with nine hundred windows There’s a tree where the doves go to die There’s a piece that was torn from the morning … Continue reading →

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Saved for the very end

Posted on December 31, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

Reading Rhythms is not a book club. It’s a reading party. Read with friends to curated music. “It’s my party and I’ll read if I want to. What a super concept; I hope that it spreads. Ernest Hemingway only used 59 … Continue reading →

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Behind The Scenes

Posted on May 19, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

The exterior of the Thomas Fisher Library offers little clue to the extraordinary treasures inside. Now we can take a ten-minute, behind-the-scenes tour through the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library in Toronto, Canada, where we can discover a First Folio, the … Continue reading →

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“How can I begin anything new with all of yesterday in me?”

Posted on March 5, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

It was announced last week that a previously unpublished book by Leonard Cohen—rejected by two publishers and then set aside—will be published this October by Grove Press. The novel, A Ballet of Lepers, will be published with fifteen short stories and … Continue reading →

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Except that the goal falls short of the reach

Posted on September 24, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

I may have mentioned once or twice that I am a huge fan of the late poet and singer Leonard Cohen. Those of us who value his work were greatly saddened by his passing. Last week the first cut from … Continue reading →

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There is a crack in everything

Posted on November 11, 2017 by Brian D. Butler

It’s hard to believe that Leonard Cohen has been gone for a year, but this week his hometown of Montreal marked his passing with a wonderful mural portrait in the heart of downtown. Created by LA-based artist El Mac, the … Continue reading →

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