Great Regulars: [Leonard Cohen] approaches life as a poet

and I think he's almost unique in the rock and roll domain in that there are many people like Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan and subsequent ones who have a great gift for poetry but are musicians first. I see Cohen as being very similar to Thomas Merton. I was just up at the monastery reading Merton and it's word for word similar but even more Emily Dickinson with those riddled quatrains where each word is so uncanny but so perfectly put together in this little jewel box that can explode in your hand. It's a very rare thing even in poetry because not much mainstream poetry is rhymed and observes so specific a rhythm as his. [--Pico Iyer]

from Jeff Baker: The Oregonian: Pico Iyer talks about the Dalai Lama, Leonard Cohen and the virtues of traveling within yourself

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