that man

      that man
              to Leonard Cohen

that man
in his elegant
disguise of
razored
word
took us down
to the river
that twisted with
light amidst long
runs of darkness,
that river sounded
like a whisper into
the microphone
of dream,
ran with the
strength of a
lover’s body
all the length
of touch,
ran over
sunken gardens
and that stone
carved deeper
than the night
with the name that
can never be said*
that his people
lost and carry ever
in its loss

now
we who
loved the
spoken edge
of you
must
carry
yours

12 november 2016

*the ‘tetragrammaton’, the 4 letter name of god in Hebrew, the correct pronounciation of which some scholars have claimed can never be known with certainty.

Copyright ©2016 Peter Le Baige.  All Rights Reserved

The music is the opening number of Keith Jarrett’s solo concert given in 1984 and available on Youtube.