Leonard Cohen Plays Leeds (1972)

Well, I know I'm biased but I always thought one of the best poems I ever wrote is this one: a tale of a romance that was never meant to be, inspired by attending a Leonard Cohen at the Leeds University Student Union Building in 1972 with a semi-detached girlfriend.


For Roz:
​Leonard Cohen Plays Leeds (1972)

You claimed to have
a steady boyfriend
who none of us ever met
Many years after
your attempt to catch up
with me again 
Too late, I realised
the reasons why

If only: you hadn’t always 
tried to impress
If only: just once
you’d dropped your facade
If only: I’d been bolder, braver
and challenged your silly games
But you played hard to get
so I got another

I still recall the way 
Cohen sang that night
The upbeat arrangement 
he used for So long, Marianne
How the backing singers 
sang the lines
“to laugh and cry
and cry and laugh”

And how you looked
when you smiled

© Copyright Charles Christian