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Book of Mercy QUOTES

Book of Mercy QUOTES

1 " Blessed is the covenant of love, the covenant of mercy, useless light behind the terror, deathless song in the house of night. "

― Leonard Cohen , Book of Mercy

2 " Blessed are you who circled desire with a blade, and the garden with fiery swords, and heaven and earth with a word. "

― Leonard Cohen , Book of Mercy

3 " Sit in a chair and keep still. Let the dancer's shoulders emerge from your shoulders, the dancer's chest from your chest, the dancer's loins from your loins, the dancer's hips and thighs from yours; and from your silence the throat that makes a sound, and from your bafflement a clear song to which the dancer moves... "

― Leonard Cohen , Book of Mercy

4 " Kindle the darkness of my calling, let me cry to the one who judges the heart in justice and mercy. Arouse my heart again with the limitless breath you breathe into me, arouse the secret from obscurity. "

― Leonard Cohen , Book of Mercy

5 " Bind me to your will, bind me with these threads of sorrow, and gather me out of the afternoon where I have torn my soul on twenty monstrous altars, offering all things but myself. "

― Leonard Cohen , Book of Mercy

6 " O master of my breath, create a man around these nostrils, and gather my heart toward the gravity of your name. Form me again with an utterance and open my mouth with your praise. There is no life but in affirming you, no world to walk on but the one which you create. "

― Leonard Cohen , Book of Mercy

7 " Here the destruction is subtle, and there the body is torn. Here the breaking is perceived, and there the dead unaware carry their putrid remains. All trade in filth, carry their filth one to another, all walk the streets as though the ground did not recoil, all stretch their necks to bite the air, as though the breath had not withdrawn. The seed bursts without a blessing, and the harvest is gathered as if it were food. "

― Leonard Cohen , Book of Mercy

8 " Blessed are you who speaks to the unworthy. "

― Leonard Cohen , Book of Mercy

9 " Though I don't believe, I come to you now, and I lift my doubt to your mercy. "

― Leonard Cohen , Book of Mercy

10 " When I have not rage or sorrow, and you depart from me, then I am most afraid. When the belly is full, and the mind has its sayings, then I fear for my soul; I rush to you as a child at night breaks into its parents' room. Do not forget me in my satisfaction. When the heart grins at itself, the world is destroyed. And I am found alone with the husks and the shells. Then the dangerous moment comes: I am too great to ask for help. I have other hopes. I legislate from the fortress of my disappointments, with a set jaw. Overthrow this even terror with a sweet remembrance: when I was with you, when my soul delighted you, when I was what you wanted. My heart sings of your longing for me, and my thoughts climb down to marvel at your mercy. I do not fear as you gather up my days. Your name is the sweetness of time, and you carry me close into the night, speaking consolations, drawing down lights from the sky, saying, See how the night has no terror for one who remembers the Name. "

― Leonard Cohen , Book of Mercy

11 " BLESSED ARE YOU WHO HAS given each man a shield of loneliness so that he cannot forget you. You are the truth of loneliness, and only your name addresses it. Strengthen my loneliness that I may be healed in your name, which is beyond all consolations that are uttered on this earth. Only in your name can I stand in the rush of time, only when this loneliness is yours can I lift my sins toward your mercy. "

― Leonard Cohen , Book of Mercy

12 " I stopped stopping and I stopped starting, and I allowed myself to be crushed by ignorance. "

― Leonard Cohen , Book of Mercy

13 " I DRAW ASIDE THE CURTAIN. You mock us with the beauty of your world. "

― Leonard Cohen , Book of Mercy

14 " Listen to the one who has not been wounded, the one who says, 'It is not good that man should be alone.' Recall your longing to the loneliness where it was born, so that when she appears, she will stand before you, not against you. Refine your longing here, in the small silver music of her preparations, under the low-built shelter of repentance. "

― Leonard Cohen , Book of Mercy

15 " Blessed be the covenant of love between what is hidden and what is revealed. "

― Leonard Cohen , Book of Mercy

16 " Blessed is your name. Blessed is the confession of your name. "

― Leonard Cohen , Book of Mercy

17 " Refine your longing here, in the small silver music of her preparations, under the low-built shelter of repentance. "

― Leonard Cohen , Book of Mercy

18 " You let me sing, you lifted me up, you have my soul a beam to travel on. You folded your distance back into my heart. You drew the tears back to my eyes. You hid me in the mountain of your word. You gave the injury a tongue to heal itself. You covered my head with my teacher's care, you bound my arm with my grandfather's strength. O beloved speaking, O comfort whispering in the terror, unspeakable explanation of the smoke and cruelty, undo the self-conspiracy, let me dare the boldness of joy. "

― Leonard Cohen , Book of Mercy

19 " and once again I am a singer in the lower choirs, born fifty years ago to raise my voice this high, and no higher. "

― Leonard Cohen , Book of Mercy

20 " In the thin light of hunted pleasure, I become afraid that I will never know my sorrow. I call on you with a cry that concentrates the heart. When will I cry out in gratitude? When will I sing to your mercy? "

― Leonard Cohen , Book of Mercy