Dear Editor:
Every Canadian who ever had a thought concerning music or poetry has been touched by the life and death of Leonard Cohen.
I had two encounters with Leonard Cohen.The first was in the early sixties at a Montreal bistro when he was working in the garment district and I was looking for myself between educational pursuits. He was not yet famous and had not yet released his first album. We spoke of women and politics – he more interested in the former and I in the latter. It was purely a chance encounter in a friendly social setting of two men in their exuberant twenties.
Our next and only other meeting occurred on the Greek island of Hydra about 10 years later where I had docked my boat in the harbour. Cohen, who was living in the small town, approached me attracted by the Canadian registration flag mounted on the stern. We spoke of Canada, the turmoil of Greek politics and other mundane things. He did not remember our first meeting and there was no reason that he should have done so. I, on the other hand, was aware of his celebrity at home having already published one or more novels and being well-launched into his music and songwriting career. These memories surface whenever I hear his music which has become familiar to three generations of the young and the old over more than half a century. While saddened by his loss, I am comforted in the knowledge that he has returned to Montreal, the city where he was most loved.
John Douglas Gardner
Peachland, B.C.
