E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG BY TODD SWIFT

There was never a time when I did not know about Leonard Cohen.  I was born in 1966, and he had been famous (in Canada) as one of our best poets even before then; by 1967, he was world-famous, arguably Canada's most-beloved figure ever on the world stage, and he kept on being so, up until his death yesterday. My mother was a huge fan, and his music and poetry (less so his prose) was always in my childhood.
Since I was born in Montreal (as was he), and shared his passion for debating and writing (less so, strumming guitars), he was never far from my thought - indeed, as a teenager trying to write poetry, and wondering if such a role was feasible for a Montrealer, Cohen showed the way (along with Irving Layton, and Louis Dudek, his mentors, later both mine as well). Mostly, like most Canadian poets, my affections were of the love-hate kind. He was the absentee father, who rarely did or said anything to promote younger poets from his homeland, even while laying the ground for their mu…

Anglo-Quebecer Leonard Cohen is (finally? again?) taking Britain by storm. Britain, about to become Austerity Britain Mark II, is falling under the spell of Montreal's most beloved son. His recent concerts have been applauded by no less than the beleagured Chancellor, Alistair Darling; the UK economy may be at its worst off since World War Two. Meanwhile: Germaine Greerrecently claimed Bob Dylan isn't a very good writer, at all. And, famous formalist British poet Wendy Cope has been asked to write poetry for the anniversary of the BBC. One of her poems is, to say the least, dismissive of Dylan Thomas. Trouble in the towers of song?

Eyewear is proud to replicate, below, the latest Jacket magazine announcement (slightly edited), for its new issue. As you know, Jacket is usually thought of as the world's leading English-language online magazine dedicated to poets, poetry and poetics. And, among oher features (it is a very rich and expansive issue) is the one I co-edited with Jason Camlot, on contemporary Anglo-Quebec poets, including, among others, Leonard Cohen and Stephanie Bolster. Read on!

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Announcing Jacket 34 -- Late 2007 -- special stocking-stuffer issue!
Editor: John Tranter - Associate Editor: Pam Brown
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F E A T U R E : Contemporary Turkish Poetry
A selection of poems and essays drawn from «Eda: An Anthology of Contemporary
Turkish Poetry» edited by Murat Nemet-Nejat, published by Talisman House, New
Jersey, and available through Small Press Distribution. With thanks to Talisman
House.
F E A T U R E : Post-Marginal Positions: Women a…

Leonard Cohen's show, Book of Longing, with Philip Glass at the Barbican this October was sold out long ago. And Penguin UK has just published the Book of Longing, Cohen's wonderful new collection of poems, in paperback this August.

Penguin's gain was poetry imprint Cape's loss. Cape was first approached to publish the book, but rather counter-intuitively turned it down. Pity. Book of Longing is now one of Canada's best-selling poetry books of all time.
And Cohen, after all, was one of Jonathan Cape's poets, in 1969. But the tendency in London poetry publishing, to not publish good, popular Canadian and American poets, is a strong one. I'd go so far as to argue that such an insular editorial approach actually weakens general interest in and respect for contemporary poetry in the UK, by falsely regulating the sense of how exciting, dynamic, and even popular North American poetry - indeed, potentially, all poetry - is - or can be.

I have a review of Leonard Cohen's latest collection of poems, Book of Longing, online at Northern Poetry Review. http://www.northernpoetryreview.com/

On the cusp of Canada Day, July 1, Eyewear is pleased to note a new review of Leonard Cohen's latest collection, Book of Longing, in the TLS (June 30 2006).

It's written by Pico Iyer (see link below), no stranger to Cohen's Northern Comforts.

I am currently completing my own review, for NPR, so won't say more here.

One aspect worthy of mention - the Iyer article on Cohen is under the heading "Music" - not "Poetry".

Canadians may find it irritating to realise that, outside his own country, LC is not considered so much a writer-turned-singer as vice versa - as if his towering intellect had been muffled by his tower of song.

http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/iyer.html