Dear Miss Melancholy,
I write constantly of how you affect me
you're like a guest
who overstays their welcome
in my head
and in my heart.
You seem to keep me all together
yet you constantly tear me apart.
And sometimes I think
that I will miss your constant presence,
but then I remember,
I will not miss Miss Melancholy
because she enjoys my sadness
and loves making me bleed
for reasons that are not clear to me.
Suzanne is a song written by Canadian poet and singer/song writer Leonard Cohen which was first written as a poem in 1966 and first recorded by Judy Collins that same year. In 1967 he recorded it as a single from his album Songs of Leonard Cohen. This intimate song was inspired by his platonic relationship with Suzanne Verdal, the then girlfriend of sculpter Armand Valliancourt. It relates to their visits at her apartment by the Montreal harbor and walks past the church of Notre - Dame - de - Bon - Secoures where sailors were blessed before going to sea.
Suzanne
Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river You can hear the boats go by, you can spend the night forever And you know that she's half-crazy but that's why you want to be there And she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China And just when you mean to tell her that you have no love to give her Then he gets you on her wavelength And she lets the river answer that you've always been her lover
And you want to travel with her, and you want to travel blind And you know that she will trust you For you've touched her perfect body with your mind
And Jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water And he spent a long time watching from his lonely wooden tower And when he knew for certain only drowning men could see him He said all men will be sailors then until the sea shall free them But he himself was broken, long before the sky would open Forsaken, almost human, he sank beneath your wisdom like a stone
And you want to travel with him, and you want to travel blind And you think you maybe you'll trust him For he's touched your perfect body with her mind
Now, Suzanne takes your hand and she leads you to the river She's wearing rags and feathers from Salvation Army counters And the sun pours down like honey on our lady of the harbor And she shows you where to look among the garbage and the flowers There are heroes in the seaweed, there are children in the morning They are leaning out for love and they wil lean that way forever While Suzanne holds her mirror
And you want to travel with her, and you want to travel blind And you know that you can trust her For she's touched your perfect body with her mind