Leonard Norman Cohen was born into a middle-class Jewish family in Montreal in 1934. His father died when Leonard was just nine years old. His mother encouraged Cohen as a writer, especially of poetry, during his childhood.

He plays the guitar at age 13, initially as a way to impress a girl, but was good playing country and western songs at local cafes, and he formed a group called the Buckskin Boys.

He won his first award, the McNaughton Prizein creative writing, in 1955. He published his first book of poetry, Let Us Compare Mythologies in 1956, at age 22

He lived for an extended period in Greece, on the Isla Hydra, with his wife Marianne Jenson and their son Axel. At this time he started writing music again. His songs were a natural extension of his poetry.

He has been married once with Suzanne Elrod in the 1970s. He had two children with her and they had split by 1979.

He moved to the Mount Baldy Zen Center in Los Angeles, where he lived for five years. He was ordained as a Zen Buddhist monk in 1996 and took on the name Jikan, before leaving the Zen Center in 1999.

He is now romantically involved with Anjani Thomas

"Hallelujah"

Now I've heard there was a secret chordThat David played, and it pleased the LordBut you don't really care for music, do you?It goes like thisThe fourth, the fifthThe minor fall, the major liftThe baffled king composing HallelujahHallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proofYou saw her bathing on the roofHer beauty and the moonlight overthrew youShe tied youTo a kitchen chairShe broke your throne, and she cut your hairAnd from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Baby I have been here beforeI know this room, I've walked this floorI used to live alone before I knew you.I've seen your flag on the marble archLove is not a victory marchIt's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, HallelujahHallelujah, Hallelujah /…

"Dance Me To The End Of Love"Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove Dance me to the end of love Dance me to the end of love Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon Show me slowly what I only know the limits of Dance me to the end of love Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long We're both of us beneath our love, we're both of us above Dance me to the end of love Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the children who are asking to be born Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn Dance me to the end of love /…

DemocracyIt's coming through a hole in the air, from those nights in Tiananmen Square. It's coming from the feel that this ain't exactly real, or it's real, but it ain't exactly there. From the wars against disorder, from the sirens night and day, from the fires of the homeless, from the ashes of the gay: Democracy is coming to the U.S.A. It's coming through a crack in the wall; on a visionary flood of alcohol; from the staggering account of the Sermon on the Mount which I don't pretend to understand at all. It's coming from the silence on the dock of the bay, from the brave, the bold, the battered heart of Chevrolet: Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the sorrow in the street, the holy places where the races meet; from the homicidal bitchin' that goes down in every kitchen to determine who will serve and who will eat. From the wells of disappointment where the women kneel to pray for the grace of God in the desert here and the desert far away: Democracy is coming to the U.S.A. /…