Take the word butterfly. To use this
word it is not necessary to make the voice weigh less than an ounce or equip it
with small dusty wings. It is not necessary to invent a sunny day or a field of
daffodils. It is not necessary to be in love, or to be in love with
butterflies. The word butterfly is not a real butterfly. There is the word and
there is the butterfly. If you confuse these two items people have the right to
laugh at you. Do not make so much of the word. Are you trying to suggest that
you love butterflies more perfectly than anyone else, or really understand
their nature? The word butterfly is merely data. It is not an opportunity for
you to hover, soar, befriend flowers, symbolize beauty and frailty, or in any
way impersonate a butterfly. Do not act out words. Never act out words. Never
try to leave the floor when you talk about flying. Never close your eyes and
jerk your head to one side when you talk about death. Do not fix your burning
eyes on me when you speak about love. If you want to impress me when you speak
about love put your hand in your pocket or under your dress and play with
yourself. If ambition and the hunger for applause have driven you to speak
about love you should learn how to do it without disgracing yourself or the
material.
What is the expression which the age
demands? The age demands no expression whatever. We have seen photographs of
bereaved Asian mothers. We are not interested in the agony of your fumbled organs.
There is nothing you can show on your face that can match the horror of this
time. Do not even try. You will only hold yourself up to the scorn of those who
have felt things deeply. We have seen newsreels of humans in the extremities of
pain and dislocation. Everyone knows you are eating well and are even being
paid to stand up there. You are playing to people who have experienced a
catastrophe. This should make you very quiet. Speak the words, convey the
data, step aside. Everyone knows you are in pain. You cannot tell the audience
everything you know about love in every line of love you speak. Step aside and
they will know what you know because you know it already. You have nothing to
teach them. You are not more beautiful than they are. You are not wiser. Do not
shout at them. Do not force a dry entry. That is bad sex. If you show the lines
of your genitals, then deliver what you promise. And remember that people do
not really want an acrobat in bed. What is our need? To be close to the natural
man, to be close to the natural woman. Do not pretend that you are a beloved
singer with a vast loyal audience which has followed the ups and downs of your
life to this very moment. The bombs, flame-throwers, and all the shit have
destroyed more than just the trees and villages. They have also destroyed the
stage. Did you think that your profession would escape the general destruction?
There is no more stage. There are no more footlights. You are among the people.
Then be modest. Speak the words, convey the data, step aside. Be by yourself.
Be in your own room. Do not put yourself on.
This is an interior landscape. It is
inside. It is private. Respect the privacy of the material. These pieces were
written in silence. The courage of the play is to speak them. The discipline of
the play is not to violate them. Let the audience feel your love of privacy
even though there is no privacy. Be good whores. The poem is not a slogan. It
cannot advertise you. It cannot promote your reputation for sensitivity. You
are not a stud. You are not a killer lady. All this junk about the gangsters of
love. You are students of discipline. Do not act out the words. The words die
when you act them out, they wither, and we are left with nothing but your
ambition.
Speak the words with the exact
precision with which you would check out a laundry list. Do not become
emotional about the lace blouse. Do not get a hard-on when you say panties. Do
not get all shivery just because of the towel. The sheets should not provoke a
dreamy expression about the eyes. There is no need to weep into the
handkerchief. The socks are not there to remind you of strange and distant
voyages. It is just your laundry. It is just your clothes. Don't peep through
them. Just wear them.
The poem is nothing but information.
It is the Constitution of the inner country. If you declaim it and blow it up
with noble intentions then you are no better than the politicians whom you
despise. You are just someone waving a flag and making the cheapest kind of
appeal to a kind of emotional patriotism. Think of the words as science, not as
art. They are a report. You are speaking before a meeting of the Explorers'
Club of the National Geographic Society. These people know all the risks of
mountain climbing. They honour you by taking this for granted. If you rub their
faces in it that is an insult to their hospitality. Tell them about the height
of the mountain, the equipment you used, be specific about the surfaces and the
time it took to scale it. Do not work the audience for gasps ans sighs. If you
are worthy of gasps and sighs it will not be from your appreciation of the
event but from theirs. It will be in the statistics and not the trembling of
the voice or the cutting of the air with your hands. It will be in the data and
the quiet organization of your presence.
Avoid the flourish. Do not be afraid
to be weak. Do not be ashamed to be tired. You look good when you're tired. You
look like you could go on forever. Now come into my arms. You are the image of
my beauty.
Leonard
Cohen.
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