The Orient
poemsong, in memory of Leonard Cohen
by David Solway
I travelled to the orient Am, Em
Where the earnest seekers went C, Em
To search for wisdom, search for truth— Am, Em
The illusions of our youth C, Em
Between desire and regret, Am, F6 or Dm7/A
The tower and the oubliette Em, Am
High up on the mountain peak
Between the straight and the oblique
Between the summit and the cloud
Between the hermit and the crowd
I found the wise man sitting there
Who played a hand of solitaire
I asked the sage what he would do
If he were caught between the two
Between the music of the spheres
And the music no one hears
Between the silence and the word
The seahorse and the hummingbird
The wise man did not say a thing
He merely cast in the I Ching
His fingers moving canzicrans
Lost between the hexagrams
Lost between the waning moon
And the darkness of the rune
Between the free man and the slave
Between the sunlight and the cave
The leaden bar, the golden mean,
There’s only what lies in between
Between what rises and what falls
Between the night and the crystal balls
Between the heavens and the dust
Between the oil and the rust
Between the creature and the wheel
Between the angel and the seal
That’s all that our wisdom knows
Between the nettle and the rose
Going to and coming from
Riding on the pendulum
Between intention and result
Between the sweetness and the salt
Between the field mouse and the hawk
Between forever and the clock
I’ve come back from the orient
Back into my element
It’s not the game we used to play
When we were fools back in the day
Between the shroud and the swaddling cloth
Between the candle and the moth
The wise man, well, he made no sense
And that produced the consequence
Between the flower and the fire
Between the dungeon and the spire
Between the winding corridors
Between the prayers and the wars
O many went to Kathmandu
Betrayed the Christian and the Jew
Betrayed the world that gave them life
Sought for peace and brought back strife
And did not keep the proper time
Between the rhythm and the rhyme