Thousands of people made a pilgrimage to the Waldbuehne amphitheater. They came to the great ceremony led by the high priest, Leonard Cohen. 6.30 p.m. was the time; at 6.15, the amphitheater was half empty. By 6.30, they were there by the thousands, ages 18-70 from all nations and places.

He was there, his deep voice with all the prayers and pains, a voice better, deeper and more mesmerizing than ever; this was him, the high priest. It was not the soundtrack of their lives that brought the people there, but the soundtrack of their soul, the sound of love. “There is a crack in everything,” said the poet-troubadour/singer/cantor/musician Leonard Cohen,

“There is a crack in everything

that’s how the light gets in

Bring the bells…”

The light within, the bells of every beauty, these are the things that had brought the people there, as an antidote to cynicism—the disease of our generation.

It was an ancient ceremony where all the significant subjects of life were resynchronized, harmonized, praised with new purity, faith and exaltation. It was an old ceremony of great humility, modesty and compassion to the human condition. Leonard Cohen is a poet beyond everything and this has great importance; it means that he will accompany your soul for three and a half hours; that he will respect your intelligence, your mind; and mainly that he will facilitate within you this precious thing most intimate and most of the time hidden: your naked soul. Chastity and innocence.

He started by saying, “I am now before you in Berlin, which was once a turbulent place and now one of the most peaceful places.”

And one after another followed all his poem-songs for 210 moments of grace.

1. The tree is set on fire, the fire of red flowers: and she did see a little bird over 31 and she could sense the trembling bliss and I thought she had to go away and I have been studying the colors of the dream.

2. As I am moving all around Berlin and have this homey wonderful anchor in an inviting, gentle PLACE CALLED BLEIBTREU hotel with the devoted and pleasant staff. In the morning the shining breakfast and at night when I come back from the city a warming dinner, and the room with all my books and music that I brought with me. My homeland is my library; everything here affords me with this luxurious free time for writing.

3. On August 3, we had a special literary evening for Naomi Shihab and myself. It was a kind of celebration as we discussed childhood, the idea of sister languages and we read poems with actors and the team of the hotel made its best of the success of the event and indeed the audience was generous enough and my main host here, Mr. Uli Schreiber, the general editor of the Berlin Literature Festival, was generous enough to say that that evening is one of the best he has ever attended.

4. My colleague Naomi went away and now I have to keep on the mission, or rather I have the pleasure, “plaisir d’ecrire,” as Roland Barthes used to say.

5. The tree is green with red fruits and golden traces all around the branches, the local park is an island of peace and a source of simple joy.

6. Helmut Newton was a satirist; the way he used the camera is one way of celebrating life through the beauty of women and the body. As if he was invited to a fest with Bacchus.

7. I spent a wonderful evening as a guest of Uli Schreiber at Paris Bar, a place. One can watch the local milieu of beauty and the arts. It was Hesiod who said: happy is the one who listens to the song of the Muses.

8. Käthe Kollwitz was a great artist who used to listen to the shadows, and she held within herself human suffering. Personally she lost a son and a grand son in wars, as if her subconscious prepared her for the fate to come, but above all she was a great painter and a sculptress with great soul.

Champagne – the royal golden wine on a beautiful reserved table is arranged for my birthday but for me this most generous gesture by Mr. Weinberger and the staff of Bleibtreu is also a symbol of the place. What could be a better way to start my stay at Hotel Bleibtreu, my new home for the coming weeks.

Champagne and a rose: a gesture of grace

But it all started 2 days ago, when I had landed at this elegant boutique hotel which carries out this important idea of LiteraturRaum and when I had been welcomed by the manager and the staff in a very warm and cordial way, and when I had had a pleasant conversation in the garden which is the heart of the residency.

CHAMPAGNE AND A ROSE

Two apples in my room to remind me of another image of beauty and the circle of time.

Circle of life

In the blue garden around the blue mosaic table I was welcomed warmly and openly by Mr. Weinberger, the manager of the hotel, and the literary project, LiteraturRaum, goes in accordance with the main goal of bringing into light new ideas, a goal which is the heart of literature. It takes such a long time until a new thought shines, you need to be free of all the worries of every day noise to let the spirit give birth to the original, Happy birthday! shines the golden bottle on the metronome of time and a warm and personal letter with best wishes by my host and in the name of the staff. You think that a contact, a human touch, is a moment of grace, what else could we seek against “the dying of the light”.

The blue garden

The blue bird

Happy birthday! shines from the table, from the eyes of the staff I met that morning, in the heart of this amazing, vibrant city. I am looking forward to be inspired by its artistic scene, its shadows and the new light which has made her perhaps the most interesting city in the world (with New York).

Happy birthday! Jacob from the international literature festival was also with us in the blue garden after he picked me up from the airport with his generous welcome.

And the room facing Bleibtreustrasse, the trees, the light, the people going by.

A bird over 31

And Deli 31 with its delicious food, around the blue table I thought about the literary saloons of the 19th century, and I am thinking how wonderful and useful it could be for the hotel to organize such an event every month:

The saloon of the blue garden with one central speaker, a poet or a prose writer, it could be A DINNER WITH A WRITER IN THE BLUE GARDEN. The BUZZ WILL SPREAD … Once upon a time there was a mansion in the heart of Berlin and it turned to be a boutique hotel which revives the tradition of literary saloons side by side with the LiteraturRaum.

Happy birthday!

I went out to Ku’damm and to the city lights.