Patrick Comerford
We are in the countdown to Christmas, with just six days to go to Christmas Day. The last week of Advent began on Sunday with the Third Sunday of Advent or Gaudete Sunday (17 December 2023), and this is a very short Advent this year.
I have been in Dublin overnight, and I return to Stony Stratford later in the day, with a flight from Birmingham this evening. But, before the day begins, I am taking some time for prayer, reflection and reading this morning.
Throughout Advent this year, my reading and reflection each day includes a poem or song by Leonard Cohen. These Advent reflections are following this pattern:
1, A reflection on a poem or song by Leonard Cohen;
2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
The Songs and Poems of Leonard Cohen: 17, ‘Boogie Street’:
‘Boogie Street’ first appeared as a song in 2001 on Ten New Songs, an album Leonard Cohen made with Sharon Robinson. On the CD Live in London, he says: ‘Shar Robinson wrote this tune.’ It is not clear whether this means that she wrote the tune and he wrote the words. But the liner notes say ‘Leonard Cohen/Sharon Robinson.’
But the lyrics were first written as a poem and appears in his Book of Longing along with other poems he wrote between 1994 and 1999 while he was on Mount Baldy.
The song, unlike the poem, prefaces as well as ends with the final stanza. That refrain is also included as a bridge or chorus in the middle of the song. As with all of Leonard Cohen’s songs and poems, there is a spiritual message in this song, yet the lyrics are tinged with an element of wry humour.
In the first verses of ‘Boogie Street,’ Cohen sings:
O Crown of Light, O Darkened One,
I never thought we’d meet.
You kiss my lips, and then it’s done:
I’m back on Boogie Street.
Professor Eliot R Wolfson of the University of California Santa Barbara specialises in the history of Jewish mysticism, and is also a poet who has three published collections to his name. He has written about the influence of Jewish mysticism, and particularly Lurianic Kabbalism, on the poetry of Leonard Cohen.
Eliot Wolfson’s study, ‘New Jerusalem Glowing: Songs and Poems of Leonard Cohen in a Kabbalistic Key,’ was published in Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts, vol 15 (2006), pp 103-153.
In his commentary on the song ‘Boggie Street’, Wolfson assumes that the singer depicts a state after being unexpectedly struck by ‘the primordial light so bright that it glistens in the radiance of its darkness.’ This carries connotations of the revelation of light in Kabbalah, which springs out from its hiding place and is only to be seen thanks to its ‘concealing and clothing itself.’
Leonard Cohen’s repeated names for the divine in this song or poem – ‘Crown of Light, O Darkened One’ – call to mind the highest Sefirah in the Kabbalistic system: Keter or Crown, the infinite, boundless or Ein Sof, the highest point of the Sefirot.
Each verse of the song offers an initiatory and ephemeral experience of love taking place outside the ordinary world, and each returns the speaker to that ordinary world of ‘Boogie Street.’
As with many of the poems in The Spice-Box of Earth (1967), ‘Boogie Street’ also draws on the traditions in Jewish spirituality of welcoming the ‘Sabbath Queen’ or the ‘Sabbath Bride’ who descends from Heaven to heal the sufferings of the Jews.
The arrival and departure of ‘Her Majesty’ is marked by ceremonies. When she enters, everybody is happy; when she leaves, there is a strange sadness. But people take comfort in a symbolic ritual that includes inhaling the aroma of spices contained in an ornamental box, often made of silver, the spice box.
Spice-boxes are an essential part of Havdalah (הַבְדָּלָה, ‘separation’), the ceremony marking the symbolic end of Shabbat and ushering in the new week. Like kiddush, Havdalah is recited over a cup of wine. The ritual involves lighting a special Havdalah candle with several wicks, blessing a cup of wine and smelling sweet spices – referred to with humour in the words ‘A sip of wine, a cigarette and then it’s time to go.’
In this song, the soul would seem to be suffering from the loss of the Sabbath’s peace and the Sabbath soul called Neshamah yeteirah. Could this also recall Christ’s sense of being abandoned by the Divine as he is dying on the Cross (see Matthew 27: 46 and Mark 15: 34)? In both cases, we can see the song as describing the return of the soul to the body as something that is both painful and difficult.
In an interview with the New York Observer, Leonard Cohen said: ‘The evidence accumulates as you get older that things are not going to turn out exactly as you wish them to turn out, and that life has a dreamy quality that suggests that you have no control over the consequences.’
In an interview with Brian D Johnson in Maclean’s Magazine in 2001, Leonard Cohen said of Boogie Street: ‘… during the day Boogie Street is a scene of intense commercial activity … And at night, it was a scene of intense and alarming sexual exchange.’
Later, he goes on to talk of its metaphorical meaning: ‘Boogie Street to me was that street of work and desire, the ordinary life and also the place we live in most of the time that is relieved by the embrace of your children, or the kiss of your beloved, or the peak experience in which you yourself are dissolved, and there is no one to experience it so you feel the refreshment when you come back from those moments.’
He adds: ‘So we all hope for those heavenly moments, which we get in those embraces and those sudden perceptions of beauty and sensations of pleasure, but we’re immediately returned to Boogie Street.’
Leonard Cohen, Boogie Street:
Oh Crown of Light, Oh Darkened One
I never thought we’d meet
You kiss my lips, and then you’re gone
And I’m back on Boogie Street
A sip of wine, a cigarette and then it’s time to go
I tidied up the kitchenette, I tuned the old banjo
I’m wanted at the traffic-jam, they’re saving me a seat
I’m what I am, and what I am is back on Boogie Street
And oh my love, I still recall the pleasures that we knew
The rivers and the waterfall, wherein I bathed with you
Bewildered by your beauty there, I’d kneel to dry your feet
By such instructions you prepare a man for Boogie Street
Oh Crown of Light, Oh Darkened One
I never thought we’d meet
You kiss my lips, and then it’s done
And I’m back, back on Boogie Street
So come my friends, be not afraid, we are so lightly here
It is in love that we are made, in love we disappear
Though all the maps of blood and flesh are posted on the door
There’s no one who has told us yet what Boogie Street is for
Oh Crown of Light, Oh Darkened One
I never thought we’d meet
You kiss my lips, and then it’s done
And I’m back, back on Boogie Street
A sip of wine, a cigarette and then it’s time to go
I tidied up the kitchenette, I tuned the old banjo
I’m wanted at the traffic-jam, they're saving me a seat
I’m what I am …
.
Luke 1: 5-25 (NRSVA):
5 In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife was a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord. 7 But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years.
8 Once when he was serving as priest before God and his section was on duty, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense. 10 Now at the time of the incense-offering, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside. 11 Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified; and fear overwhelmed him. 13 But the angel said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. 14 You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink; even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. 16 He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’ 18 Zechariah said to the angel, ‘How will I know that this is so? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.’ 19 The angel replied, ‘I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20 But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur.’
21 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah, and wondered at his delay in the sanctuary. 22 When he did come out, he could not speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He kept motioning to them and remained unable to speak. 23 When his time of service was ended, he went to his home.
24 After those days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she remained in seclusion. She said, 25 ‘This is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favourably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people.’
Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 19 December 2023):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Joy of Advent.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (19 December 2023) invites us to pray in these words:
Lord, we ask that your Spirit transform the days leading up to Christmas into a time of holy anticipation. Prepare our hearts as we joyfully await the chance to celebrate the arrival of our King.
The Collect:
O Lord Jesus Christ,
who at your first coming sent your messenger
to prepare your way before you:
grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries
may likewise so prepare and make ready your way
by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
that at your second coming to judge the world
we may be found an acceptable people in your sight;
for you are alive and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
We give you thanks, O Lord, for these heavenly gifts;
kindle in us the fire of your Spirit
that when your Christ comes again
we may shine as lights before his face;
who is alive and reigns now and for ever.
Additional Collect:
God for whom we watch and wait,
you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son:
give us courage to speak the truth,
to hunger for justice,
and to suffer for the cause of right,
with Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflection
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
Songwriters: Leonard Cohen / Sharon Robinson. Boogie Street lyrics © Emi April Music Inc., Sony/atv Songs Llc
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