2010/06/22 Angels Poem by Margaret Alice

Overjoyed with a new computer just bought,
a laptop, my old one’s broken; I was stuck
in an icy kitchen with a go-nowhere screen,
now I can type where I want, in front of TV,
at the little school desk

Watching Leonard Cohen’s DVD ‘Live in
London’ on the new PC, preparing dinner
in between, sound weak, volume low, when
he sings ‘Dance Me To The End Of Love’
I cup my fingers over my ears to hear

He sings ‘Tower Of Song’, I cry, he looks so
frail, so elegant, singing “I’m crazy for love”
saying the answer to life’s question is open
ended, leaving the mystery intact – a poet
to my own heart, he is clever, leaving it to

a listener’s imagination, humble and cool,
I tried to capture the feeling in words but
they ran away, my cupped fingers made
recording thoughts inspired impossible
while typing on the old laptop anchored

in the cold kitchen, tonight I want to watch
him singing with surround-sound on the big
screen, toasting him with vodkatini, paying
homage to everything he has been, still is
and always will be

“I loved you when you opened a thousand
kisses deep”*, sounds too good to be true
but I share the dream when he sings ‘So
Long Marianne’; you say it is one of your
favourite songs of all time –

when we forget to pray for the angels –
they forget to pray for us; I DANCE for the
angels to keep them amused so they won’t
forget to pray for me...

Leonard Cohen ‘Recitation’
Leonard Cohen DVD “Live in London”
Recorded live in concert 17 July 2008