• This morning a client was not able to come to voice class due to train mishaps. She wrote - please excuse me. The train has stopped and I feel trapped. I have fallen into a place of dark melancholy. With Trump in my back and now the news of Cohen I feel like even poetry has died. I wrote back - Poetry never dies. Our work is intensifying.
     
    It was my dream for the Kite Tailor project to continue to elevate spoken word and poetry into our world. I had wild ideas like poetry breaks on radios instead of ridiculous ads for washing powder. Poetry kites for kids and healing guided tracks for all. Poetry my life line. Words my colors.
    A constant vision I see for our world that needs music and poetry more than ever. And not written and sung by a mere few talented ones... everyone needs to join if we are going to make the shift to build the humanity and earth we envision.
  • Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.

    Leonard Cohen

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    It was after I read Leonard Cohen's Biography that I dared to go onto the stage and sit and sing at the piano without the band. Stripped Naked. Trusting in the tender. In the book, Leonard had written that he was a poet but did not know how to play the guitar. He actually wanted to write books but music sold more and he had to eat.
     
    He met a guy close to a playground who was deep in his chords and Leonard asked him to teach him. He came to his house and taught him - 3 chords? or perhaps it was six. The Six basic chords. The next day Leonard went to find him and ask him some more about the guitar. The guy was not to be found. Leonard asked around. He found out the guy had committed suicide. Those chords were the last things he had passed on before he killed himself. Leonard always said - he built all his songs around those basic chords. It touched something in me. Life is simple. People make it too complex. He created many albums and sang thousands of concerts based on the few chords. Cohen was the essence. Elegance. humor.dark. light. mensch. He was in the music business and yet outside of it. Never veering from his truth. I always loved that about him. He did not care for falsehoods. He exposed them. He stood hand and hand with pain as much as he stood inside a kiss. And yes, so it is - our work intensifies.
     
    Thank you, Leonard Cohen for your courage.compassion and highly creative soul. You have blessed our world and may we all find the voice needed to cut through the darkness. Your voice is with us forever.
     

  • Thank you to all the poets of this world. Especially the singing poets - you are in my blood like holy wine.