Temple Of Love Poem by michael spangenberg

Out of the game …
Broken and lame …
Mine must be the shame.

Now, Hallelujah lies at rest
Atop Mount Royal in the city
Montreal, he loved most.

Buried beside his ancestors
In the cemetery of the congregation
He maintained a lifelong connection.

"Chazak, chazak v'nitchazeik!
- Be strong, be strong and
Let us strengthen one another!

An elegant practitioner of the senses
Fully engaged in the realm of desire
And yet fully dedicated to the spiritual.

Every man of faith needs to make pilgrimage
Through all his spiritual Peregrinations
Leonard Cohen passed the ultimate test.

Bombarded with icy-cold calls
Alarm bells start ringing, our world's to no avail
Inundated with the malignant cancer of injustice.

But perverse reality's not quite what it seems
The moral arch of the human universe is ultimately
Skewed towards justice, have patience...

When asked where one could direct
A charitable contribution in his honor,
Any food bank, he said, close to home's better.

There are times when you show the flag
To indicate that there is nourishment to be
Had from religion and culture.

Exuberance morphing into subdued
Ecstatic Hallelujahs unto closing time
More sober, more solemn.

I heard you whispering your last words:
In love I was made, in love I disappear
We are so lightly here.

Contemporary cantor of the world
May your voice reach that Place
And bring down Yahweh blessings.

Footnote-Tribute to Elisabeth, Laurens and Hans Christian in a Poetic variation based on KD Lang's ode to Leonard Cohen, and Cantor Gideon Zelermyer's poignant article in: Globe and Mail, Nov.18,2016.