Leonard Cohen
"To A Teacher" lyrics

To A Teacher

Hurt once and for all into silence
A long pain ending
Without a song to prove it
Who could stand beside you
So close to Eden
When you glinted in every eye
The held-high razor
Shivering every ram and son?

And now the silent loony bin
Where the shadows live
In the rafters like day-weary bats
Until the turning mind
A radar signal
Lures them to exaggerate
Mountain-size
On the white stone wall
Your tiny limp

How can I leave you
In such a house?
Are there no more saints and wizards
To praise their ways with pupils
No more evil to stun
With the slap
Of a wet red tongue?

Did you confuse
The Messiah in a mirror
And rest
Because he had finally come?

Let me cry Help beside you, Teacher
I have entered under this dark roof
As fearlessly as an honoured son
Enters his father's house