loenard cohen

THERE IS A WAR
(from the album 'NEW SKIN FOR OLD CEREMONY')

There is a war between the rich and poor,
a war between the man and the woman.
There is a war between the ones who say there is a war
and the ones who say there isn't.

Why don't you come on back to the war, that's right, get in it,
why don't you come on back to the war, it's just beginning.

Well I live here with a woman and a child,
the situation makes me kind of nervous.
Yes, I rise up from her arms, she says "I guess you call this love";
I call it service.

Why don't you come on back to the war, don't be a tourist,
why don't you come on back to the war, before it hurts us,
why don't you come on back to the war, let's all get nervous.

You cannot stand what I've become,
you much prefer the gentleman I was before.
I was so easy to defeat, I was so easy to control,
I didn't even know there was a war.

Why don't you come on back to the war, don't be embarrassed,
why don't you come on back to the war, you can still get married.

There is a war between the rich and poor,
a war between the man and the woman.
There is a war between the left and right,
a war between the black and white,
a war between the odd and the even.

Why don't you come on back to the war, pick up your tiny burden,
why don't you come on back to the war, let's all get even,
why don't you come on back to the war, can't you hear me speaking?


JOAN OF ARC
(from the album 'SONGS OF LOVE AND HATE')


Now the flames they followed Joan of Arc
as she came riding through the dark;
no moon to keep her armour bright,
no man to get her through this very smoky night.
She said, "I'm tired of the war,
I want the kind of work I had before,
a wedding dress or something white
to wear upon my swollen appetite."

Well, I'm glad to hear you talk this way,
you know I've watched you riding every day
and something in me yearns to win
such a cold and lonesome heroine.
"And who are you?" she sternly spoke
to the one beneath the smoke.
"Why, I'm fire," he replied,
"And I love your solitude, I love your pride."

"Then fire, make your body cold,
I'm going to give you mine to hold,"
saying this she climbed inside
to be his one, to be his only bride.
And deep into his fiery heart
he took the dust of Joan of Arc,
and high above the wedding guests
he hung the ashes of her wedding dress.

It was deep into his fiery heart
he took the dust of Joan of Arc,
and then she clearly understood
if he was fire, oh then she must be wood.
I saw her wince, I saw her cry,
I saw the glory in her eye.
Myself I long for love and light,
but must it come so cruel, and oh so bright?


WAITING FOR THE MIRACLE
(from the album 'THE FUTURE')

Baby, I've been waiting,
I've been waiting night and day.
I didn't see the time,
I waited half my life away.
There were lots of invitations
and I know you sent me some,
but I was waiting
for the miracle, for the miracle to come.

I know you really loved me.
but, you see, my hands were tied.
I know it must have hurt you,
it must have hurt your pride
to have to stand beneath my window
with your bugle and your drum,
and me I'm up there waiting
for the miracle, for the miracle to come.

Ah I don't believe you'd like it,
You wouldn't like it here.
There ain't no entertainment
and the judgements are severe.
The Maestro says it's Mozart
but it sounds like bubble gum
when you're waiting
for the miracle, for the miracle to come.

Waiting for the miracle
There's nothing left to do.
I haven't been this happy
since the end of World War II.

Nothing left to do
when you know that you've been taken.
Nothing left to do
when you're begging for a crumb
Nothing left to do
when you've got to go on waiting
waiting for the miracle to come.

I dreamed about you, baby.
It was just the other night.
Most of you was naked
Ah but some of you was light.
The sands of time were falling
from your fingers and your thumb,
and you were waiting
for the miracle, for the miracle to come.

Ah baby, let's get married,
we've been alone too long.
Let's be alone together.
Let's see if we're that strong.
Yeah let's do something crazy,
something absolutely wrong
while we're waiting
for the miracle, for the miracle to come.

Nothing left to do ...

When you've fallen on the highway
and you're lying in the rain,
and they ask you how you're doing
of course you'll say you can't complain --
If you're squeezed for information,
that's when you've got to play it dumb:
You just say you're out there waiting
for the miracle, for the miracle to come.



EVERYBODY KNOWS
(from the album 'I'M YOUR MAN')

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died

Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you've been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you've been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows

And everybody knows that it's now or never
Everybody knows that it's me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah when you've done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe's still pickin' cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows

And everybody knows that the Plague is coming
Everybody knows that it's moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows

And everybody knows that you're in trouble
Everybody knows what you've been through
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach of Malibu
Everybody knows it's coming apart
Take one last look at this Sacred Heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows


CLOSING TIME
(from the album 'THE FUTURE')

Ah we're drinking and we're dancing
and the band is really happening
and the Johnny Walker wisdom running high
And my very sweet companion
she's the Angel of Compassion
she's rubbing half the world against her thigh
And every drinker every dancer
lifts a happy face to thank her
the fiddler fiddles something so sublime
all the women tear their blouses off
and the men they dance on the polka-dots
and it's partner found, it's partner lost
and it's hell to pay when the fiddler stops:
it's CLOSING TIME

Ah we're lonely, we're romantic
and the cider's laced with acid
and the Holy Spirit's crying, "Where's the beef?"
And the moon is swimming naked
and the summer night is fragrant
with a mighty expectation of relief
So we struggle and we stagger
down the snakes and up the ladder
to the tower where the blessed hours chime
and I swear it happened just like this:
a sigh, a cry, a hungry kiss
the Gates of Love they budged an inch
I can't say much has happened since
but CLOSING TIME

I loved you for your beauty
but that doesn't make a fool of me:
you were in it for your beauty too
and I loved you for your body
there's a voice that sounds like God to me
declaring, declaring, declaring that your body's really you
And I loved you when our love was blessed
and I love you now there's nothing left
but sorrow and a sense of overtime
and I missed you since the place got wrecked
And I just don't care what happens next
looks like freedom but it feels like death
it's something in between, I guess
it's CLOSING TIME

Yeah we're drinking and we're dancing
but there's nothing really happening
and the place is dead as Heaven on a Saturday night
And my very close companion
gets me fumbling gets me laughing
she's a hundred but she's wearing
something tight
and I lift my glass to the Awful Truth
which you can't reveal to the Ears of Youth
except to say it isn't worth a dime
And the whole damn place goes crazy twice
and it's once for the devil and once for Christ
but the Boss don't like these dizzy heights
we're busted in the blinding lights,
busted in the blinding lights
of CLOSING TIME

i guess the grievance guy has not balls. he would just prove that he was stupid if he went through with it anyway. i was thinking about my first memory last night and i realized it wasn't the poop story.:
when i was so little, we lived on spinacker lane in san jose, california in a condo. i had a light switch cover with the seven dwarves and snow white on it. my brother had not been born. i was sitiing at the dinner table and i didn't want to eat my food. my dad told me that if i didn't eat it i wouldn't get dessert. i asked him what dessert was because i didn't remember ever hearing that word before. he told me pudding. ... i felt like an alien who had just been dropped ont he lanet and i didn't know what anything was. in my memory even my dad seems like a stranger- that is my first memory.

yep. apathy. i think it may have been the same thing that made the trench coat mafia kill all of the kids in their high school. if you don't care, it doesn't make you a budhist monk, it just makes you an asshole. and maybe it's not even apathy, just a lack of all things good. like the other night in berthing: this girl talked about her eyebrows for a half hour straight, and she was serious about it. she gave us the history of her eybrows and how they had progressed over the years, she talked about her plans for the future of her eyebrow and how her life has changed because of their metamorphasis. i finally had to stop her by commenting on the fact that she had a lot to say about her eyebrows. she got the hint. she could have talked about anything else, but she chose facial hair. another big excitement is that some guy wants to file a grievance against me because he's an asshole. story:
he called and asked for his girlfriend (by the way he's married) and i told him she was on the phone. he asked if i would have her call him, i said yes and hung up. he called back and asked if i heard him, in a very abrasive tone. i said yes and hung up. i was not in the mood to converse with him, nor did i feel the need to. then, he cam down to the shop and started yelling at me, asking if i had a problem. as i was already annoyed, i replied that frankly i didn't like him and that was a problem for me a t the moment, so he flew off the handle and peters had to bring us in back.
whatever, he's a racist black man who is abrasive and the antithesis of a productive member of society. his opinion of me means nothing, but i think it's funny that he wants to file a grievance against me just because i don't like him.
i live and work around the crap of the nation, social rejects from all walks of life. apathy? disgust? is a grievance the only excitement i can expect? can i hope for something more, can i hope for something real? is this my life?

australia has been postponed, but i'm dealing with it. i'm thinking i'll get over it, not sure though. i'm not really even feeling australia right now if you can believe that. it doesn't seem all that great from the perspective of this ship. i have nobody to look forward to seeing, nothing to look forward to doing, its a very apathetic situation and i despise apathy, so you can see where the dilema starts. everytime i go out to the smoke deck i see the same view: sea. sometimes there is the occasional island, or another boat, but mostly it's sea. we've been in fairly high seas lately, upwards of nine feet. it rocks me to sleep. Oh, but damn those high seas and all their non-pulling in ways. reason number four million five thousand twenty not to reenlist. the number after that is the caliber of people in the navy. the ones preceeding that are obviously too numerous to mention in this small post.
since apathy doesn't really lend itself to passionate writting, my post will probably be as bland as boiled chicken, so get over it.

a post for all the addicts
this week has been lame. had lunch with crush on the mess decks yesterday. steel beach was canxed due to the late arrival of a cod and the early departure of a master chief. the cod faired considerably better since the master chief is now waiting it out in the deep freeze pending port arrival. too weird.
the tone was set after sing for something strange to happen, but i didn't know it would be this strange.
we are waiting the four more days in eager anticipation for our next port. it promises to be a good one, but i've been disappointed before.
i've really nothing to write, which is why the readers of capitalization have to endure the fucking story of how singapore got it's name. sorry.
i'm really ready to get off this floating pile of shit and be a real person again. i'm almost afraid i'm too tainted to be normal again.

singapore was cool. i went to a country bar and hung out with some peeps from squadron