Cohen Returns To Hydra With Marianne Poem by Keith Shorrocks Johnson

And if the lemons are bitter

Take them with a pinch of salt

For there will be a feast tonight

When we are come to shore.

It will be time for us to laugh again

And cry and laugh and come to terms.

So deeply lost - we had told ourselves

There was no new land, no new sea -



But then we came again to Piraeus.



Spume from the ferry dies

As she settles at the quay

Hugging close the better land

That harbours noble dreams -

The sea like poured wine -

The coast so advantageous,

Promontories and bays

Broken like the bread of heaven.



Stepping from ship to shore

I touch and take your hand

Confidently, companionably.

There is artistry in this journey,

Recovering our common ground.

Better leave the rest unsaid

For we have touched on Lethe here

And come to join the ancient dead.


...


'They had this place for each other at the very end. That is what words of love can do'.