Love is touching souls

In September of 2006 I met my IB English A2 class, known as 11-J, at The Koç School in Istanbul for the first time and for our first lessons together. The beginning unit of our program was poetry, and I was excited to get into it. I introduced them to a poem by Joni Mitchell called A Case of You. Here’s how it goes (in case you don’t know it); it's worth a careful read:

Just before our love got lost you said,
"I am as constant as a northern star."
And I said, "Constantly in the darkness
Where's that at?
If you want me I'll be in the bar."
On the back of a cartoon coaster
In the blue TV screen light
I drew a map of Canada
Oh Canada
With your face sketched on it twice
Oh, you're in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter and so sweet
Oh I could drink a case of you, darling
And I would still be on my feet
Oh I would still be on my feet

Oh I am a lonely painter
I live in a box of paints
I'm frightened by the devil
And I'm drawn to those ones that ain't afraid
I remember that time you told me, you said,
"Love is touching souls"
Surely you touched mine
'Cause part of you pours out of me
In these lines from time to time
Oh, you're in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter and so sweet
Oh I could drink a case of you, darling
Still, I'd be on my feet
I would still be on my feet

I met a woman
She had a mouth like yours
She knew your life
She knew your devils and your deeds
And she said,
"Go to him, stay with him if you can
But be prepared to bleed"
Oh but you are in my blood
You're my holy wine
You're so bitter, bitter and so sweet
Oh, I could drink a case of you, darling
Still I'd be on my feet
I would still be on my feet

If you are interested, you can see and hear Joni perform it here.

Partly I wanted to teach something about effective use of simile and sustained metaphor, but mostly I wanted to give my class a chance to experience some of the wonders of how poetry can work as an expression of love and loss. I can't remember now exactly how it went or how much they got from my lesson, but I still can’t hear the song without thinking of those wonderful kids I met in 11-J and the two years of English classes we spent together.

And I can’t hear the song now without thinking of Leonard. I think the idea was suggested in a blog I read about Cohen where the connection was made with Joni, a connection I had, perhaps surprisingly, never made. Whether or not the song is about the end of her relationship with Leonard, or with someone else (James Taylor may be a candidate), I can’t listen to or read the opening, “Just before our love got lost”, without thinking of the two of them teetering on the edge of breaking up, his assertion of constancy, the clever flip of her dismissal, and her departure for the bar.

There’s nothing much more to say really. I am left with the nostalgic memory of my 11-J/12-J students, now serious and grown up and well into their second years of university study, and of our still wonderful Canadian poets and performers, Joni and Leonard, perhaps still a little in each other’s “blood like holy wine”. And we are all left with the song/poem that says it all and says it so well, whether it's Joni or k.d. or Diana Krall singing it, and the thought that, sometimes at least, “Love is touching souls”.