Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen
16" x 11", oil on plywood, 2014

Dance me to the End of Love is the first song this year that enters the list by selection of someone else. That other person is my significant other and how appropriate is the theme of the song that deals with longevity of marriage. It’s one of those songs whose beauty isn’t bothered by repetitious play (as my significant other likes to do when a song strikes her fancy). The singer is of course the Canadian troubadour Leonard Cohen. The great poet has given to the world a number songs that have found their way into a universal human consciousness. Hallelujah is the most significant of those, but also Suzanne, Sisters of Mercy and others. Dance Me to the End of Love is one of these and I particularly like the line in the last strophe: "Touch me with your naked hands, touch me with your gloves". What a wonderful rhyme love and glove is.