Selected Poems, 1956-1968

In his eloquent search for what he calls a "state of grace" - the kind of balance with which one rises to the chaos around him - Leonard Cohen eludes the restrictions of genres and generations. Selected Poems includes many of the ecstatically lyric poems first published in The Spice-Box of Earth and over one hundred poems, many with strong social and religious overtones from three volumes previously published only in Canada. Collected for the first time are twenty-three songs and verses that have the stark power of fairy tales. With his flowing lines and sensory images, Cohen is equally adept as free-verse storytelling and more traditional forms. His wry humor adds poignancy to simple agony, as in the graffiti-like lines, "Marita/please find me/I am almost thirty." Eclectic, searching, the voice of Leonard Cohen is above all deeply personal.