Today is the
second anniversary of Leonard Cohen’s death.
When I go to the Mount Royal cemetery to photograph nature, I stop at an
adjacent cemetery to visit his grave site.
Almost every time, I see someone arriving at, lingering at, or leaving his site. Last month I met a woman, named Lise, who had come all the way from Houston, Texas just to visit his grave and lay some flowers.
Then a
couple of weeks ago, I unexpectedly encountered others at his site that were
very meaningful to me. It was a flock of
Golden-crowned Kinglets flitting about in the grass.
Sixty years
ago, the renowned Canadian artist James Fenwick Lansdowne painted a pair of these
kinglets and shortly afterwards I received a card of this painting and
instantly fell in love with these tiny birds with their orange and yellow
“crowns”. I’ve been in love with them ever
since but have only caught fleeting glimpses of them high in trees. Now, at this place and this time, these birds
gave me the chance to see them close up in full display.
This special
moment has inextricably linked my favorite bird with my favorite poet and moved
me to write the following poem:
COHEN AND
KINGLETS
Many times, I stand by your grave -
I even sometimes sing -
then one October afternoon
I saw a wondrous thing.
Around your grave site marker there,
adorned with stones and words,
there fluttered in the windswept
grass
a flock of tiny birds.
My best-loved
bird for sixty years,
these kinglets came to you –
my best-loved poet who returned
my life to me renewed.
I felt such exultation for
the synchronicity
that you and I and kinglets were
now linked exquisitely.
The birds flickered like tiny sparks
-
their crowns so gold and bright -
your poetry of birds and flames
had somehow come to life.
And tho' you lie 'neath frozen
ground,
and I must stand above,
I feel a deep connection here
and sense the warmth of love.
(from the book Discoveries In The Dark by Doris Potter)
© Doris Potter