Oct 12, 2018
By Jane Brown
One of Leonard Cohen’s final poems had social media buzzing yesterday as American rapper Kanye West visited U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House.
In late Leonard Cohen’s recently published book The Flame, there’s a piece titled Kanye West is Not Picasso.
The 2015 poem is a point-counterpoint narrative focused on the boastful nature of the hip-hop star, who once declared onstage; “I am Picasso.”
Cohen’s poem begins, “Kanye West is not Picasso. I am Picasso. Kanye West is not Edison. I am Edison. I am Tesla.”
Poems in The Flame were selected and ordered by Cohen himself and are the final volume of literary works from the distinguished Montrealer who died in November 2016.
In the foreword, Leonard’s son Adam Cohen writes that the volume
was what he was staying alive to do, his sole breathing purpose at the end.”
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