How did I became a Leonard Cohen disciple? I was born a Longingner.
I only don't remember if I longed to be born at all, but once arrived Here or There (Bucharest), I began longing with passion. Very young I was longing for Love, Freedom, Knowledge, God, Guilt, Forgiveness and a pair of American Blue Jeans.
I was longing for Leonard Cohen before I even heard Him. Then I heard him and it was like glancing inside the mysteriously carved effigy of my destiny.
Suzanne was the freedom of my youth, the Crack in the walls of communist Hell. My one way ticket to America!
And many years later my one way ticket to Life!
My absolute wish is to offer L.C. an UNIQUE 80th BIRTHDAY GIFT!
I will strive to create "The Leonard Cohen Longing Fellowship".
To be awarded annually to an emerging Longingner poet, to enable Him or Her to spend a month or two on the Greek Island of Hydra.
Longing, dreaming, Composing Verse...
To be continued...

"DREAMING SUZANNE " by Oana Maria Cajal

Happy 80th Birthday, LC ! By Oana Maria Cajal

An Armani Suit and a Crooked Grain
Leonard Cohen continues to establish connections with me in the most amazing ways. Across time and space he comes, a veil between us and for us, a cosmic consciousness concealed in an Armani suit and a crooked grin.

I feared flying to Amsterdam to hear him in his last European concert of 2013 but time was running out, both of us being in Act III, as he calls it. Who knew when there would be no more veil, just a star-lit field of grace?

So my son Rob and I sat at the Ziggo Arena in the back rows, the only seats we could get. I was crushed that I couldn’t get closer. But when the show began, my son disappeared for about five minutes and when he came back, he motioned for me to come with him. He had told an usher that we had flown all the way from Atlanta, Georgia, to see Leonard. She understood, and told us to find seats in the second row.

As the last encores were given, I stood with a crowd of people upfront, security guards
watching over me with love, as if they had invisible haloes. I got to see him leave the stage, Rob got a photo of that and now Leonard leaving the stage is a moment I shall never forget. But then, where would he ever go?