Leonard Cohen Poems To Make Love To

There are few poets and artists I adore more than Leonard Cohen. I find him and his music deeply sexy in an ancient and timeless way that touches you down there, in your core. I compiled a few of my favorite poems and songs of his that you could use to make love to this holiday season. Light a fire, grab a glass of wine and enjoy them alone or with a partner. Happy holidays!

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I’m You’re Man

If you want a lover
I'll do anything you ask me to
If you want another kind of love
I'll wear a mask for you
If you want a partner
take my hand, or
if you want to strike me
down in anger
here I stand
I'm your man

If you want a boxer
I will step into the ring for you
If you want a doctor
I'll examine every inch of you
If you want a driver
climb inside
or if you want to take me
for a ride
you know you can
I'm your man

The moon's too bright
The chain's too tight
The beast won't go to sleep
I've been running through
these promises to you
that I made and I could not keep
But a man never got a woman back
not by begging on his knees
or I'd crawl to you baby
and I'd fall at your feet
and I'd howl at your beauty
like a dog in heat
and I'd claw at your heart
and I'd tear at your sheet
I'd say please
I'm your man

If you've got to sleep a moment on the road
I will steer for you
and if you want to work the street alone
I'll disappear for you
If you want a father
for your child
or only want to walk
with me a while across the sand
I'm your man

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Paper Thin Hotel

The walls of this hotel are paper-thin
Last night I heard you
making love to him
The struggle mouth to mouth
and limb to limb
The grunt of unity when he came in

I stood there with my ear
against the wall
I was not seized by jealousy at all
In fact a burden lifted from my soul
I heard that love
was out of my control
A heavy burden lifted from my soul
I heard that love was out of my control

I listened to your kisses at the door
I never heard the world
so clear before
You ran your bath and you began to sing
I felt so good I couldn't feel a thing

I can't wait to tell you to your face
I can't wait for you to take my place
You are The Naked Woman
In My Heart
You are The Angel
With Her Legs Apart
It's written on the walls of this hotel
You go to heaven once
you've been to hell
A heavy burden lifted from my soul
I heard that love
was out of my control

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Celebration

When you kneel below me
and in both your hands
hold my manhood like a sceptre,

When you wrap your tongue
about the amber jewel
and urge my blessing,

I understand those Roman girls
who danced around a shaft of stone
and kissed it till the stone was warm.

Kneel, love, a thousand feet below me,
so far I can barely see your mouth and hands
perform the ceremony,

Kneel till I topple to your back
with a groan, like those gods on the roof
that Samson pulled down.

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Light As A Breeze

She stands before you naked
you can see it, you can taste it
but she comes to you
light as the breeze
You can drink or you can nurse it
it don't matter how you worship
as long as you're
down on your knees

So I knelt there at the delta
at the alpha and the omega
at the cradle of the river
and the seas
and like a blessing come from heaven,
for something like a second,
I was healed, and my heart
was at ease

O baby I waited
so long for your kiss
for something to happen
oh — something like this

And you're weak and you're harmless
and you're sleeping in you harness
and the wind going wild
in the trees
And it's not exactly prison
but you'll never be forgiven
for whatever you've done
with the keys

O baby I waited
so long for your kiss
for something to happen
oh — something like this

It's dark and it's snowing
I’ve got to be going
St. Lawrence River
is starting to freeze
and I'm sick of pretending
I'm broken from bending
I've lived too long
on my knees

And she dances so graceful
and your heart's hard and hateful
and she's naked
but that's just a tease
And you turn in disgust
from your hatred and from your love
and she comes to you
light as the breeze

O baby I waited
so long for your kiss
for something to happen
oh — something like this

There's blood on every bracelet
you can see it, you can taste it
and it's Please baby
please baby please
And she says, Drink deeply, pilgrim
but don't forget there's still a woman
beneath this
resplendent chemise

So I knelt there at the delta
at the alpha and omega
I knelt there
like one who believes
And like a blessing come from heaven
for something like a second
I was cured, and my heart
was at ease

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Need the Speed

Need the speed
need the wine
need the pleasure
in my spine

need your hand
to pull me out
need your juices
on my snout

need to see
I never saw
your need for me
your longing raw

need to hear
I never heard
against my ear
your dirty word

need to have
you summon me
like moon above
the gathered sea

need to know
I never knew
the tidal towing
come from you

need to feel
I never felt
your magnet pulling
at my self

now it fades
now it's gone
hormonal rage
unquiet song

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I Have Two Bars of Soap

I have two bars of soap,
the fragrance of almond,
one for you and one for me.
Draw the bath,
we will wash each other.

I have no money,
I murdered the pharmacist.

And here’s a jar of oil,
just like in the Bible.
Lie in my arms,
I’ll make your flesh glisten.

I have no money,
I murdered the perfumer.

Look through the window
at the shops and people.
Tell me what you desire,
you’ll have it by the hour.

I have no money,
I have no money.

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I Perceived The Outline of Your Breasts

I perceived the outline of your breasts
through your Hallowe'en costume
I knew you were falling in love with me
because no other man could perceive
the advance of your bosom into his imagination
It was a rupture of your unusual modesty
for me and me alone
through which you impressed upon my shapeless
hunger
the incomparable and final outline of your breasts
like two deep fossil shells
which remained all night long and probably forever

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The Collapse of Zen

When I can wedge my face
into the place
and struggle with my breathing
as she brings her eager fingers down
to separate herself,
to help me use my whole mouth
against her hungriness,
her most private of hungers –
why should I want to be enlightened?
Is there something that I missed?
Have I forgotten yesterday’s mosquito
or tomorrow’s hungry ghost?

When I can roam this hill with a knife in my back
caused by too much drinking of Chateau Latour
and spill my heart into the valley
of the lights of the Caguas
and freeze in fear as the watchdog
comes drooling out of the bushes
and refuses to recognize me
and there we are, yes, bewildered
as to who should kill the other first –
and I move and it moves,
and it moves and I move,
why should I want to be enlightened?
Did I leave something out?
Was there some world I failed to embrace?
Some bone I didn’t steal?

When Jesus loves me so much that blood
comes out of his heart
and I climb a metal ladder
into the hole in his bosom
which is caused by sorrow as big as China
and I enter the innermost room wearing white clothes
and I entreat and I plead:
“Not this one, Sir. Not that one, Sir. I beg you, Sir.”
and I look through His eyes
as the helpless are shit on again
and the tender blooming nipple of mankind
is caught in the pincers
of power and muscle and money –
why should I seek enlightenment?
Did I fail to recognize some cockroach?
Some vermin in the ooze of my majesty?

When ‘men are stupid and women are crazy’
and everyone is asleep in San Juan and Caguas
and everyone is in love but me
and everyone has a religion and a boyfriend
and a great genius for loneliness –

When I can dribble over all the universes
and undress a woman without touching her
and run errands for my urine
and offer my huge silver shoulders
to the pinhead moon –
When my heart is broken as usual
over someone’s evanescent beauty
and design after design
they fade like kingdoms with no writing
and, look, I wheeze my way
up to the station of Sahara’s
incomparable privacy
and churn the air into a dark cocoon
of effortless forgetting –
why should I shiver on the altar of enlightenment?
why should I want to smile forever?

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Chelsea Hotel #2

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
you were talking so brave and so sweet
giving me head on the unmade bed
while the limousines wait in the street.
Those were the reasons and that was New York
we were running for the money and the flesh
And that was called love for the workers in song
probably still is for those of them left

But you got away, didn't you babe
you just turned your back on the crowd, you got away
I never once heard you say
I need you, I don't need you, I need you, I don't need you
and all of that jiving around.

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel

You were famous, your heart was a legend.
You told me again you preferred handsome men
but for me you would make an exception.
And clenching your fist for the ones like us
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty
you fixed yourself, you said,
"Well never mind, we are ugly but we have the music."

And then you got away, didn't you babe...

I don't mean to suggest that I loved you the best
I can't keep track of each fallen robin.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel, that's all,
I don't even think of you that often.

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