Cohen's poetry at lincoln Center BY MICHAEL G,TLTZ, omposer Philip Glass is performing a concert piece built around the poems of Leonard Cohen at Lincoln Center next Saturday and Sunday.</p><p> Cohen, the acclaimed Canadianpoet and singe4 has a prior commitment and won't be able to attend l'Book of Longing," named afterhis best-sellin g 2006 collection of poems.</p><p> But even if he were free, Glass says he wouldn't have a clue as to whether Cohen would show up or not.</p><p> The show will incorporate musicians (including Glass), four singers, and Cohen's artwork, along with taped recordings of Co- hen reading his poetry.</p><p> But Cohen himself won't pedorm. "He's at awonderful place in his life where he does whatever he damn well feels like," says Glass fondly about Cohen. "He doesn't do anything - as far as I can tell - to please people.</p><p> He does things to please himself." It's not selfishness on Cohen's part, just a realization at age 72 and a lifetime of acclaim that he should focus on what's best for him.</p><p> So tell Cohen it would be great if he showed up for a certain event and he'll nod sagely and seem to agree, but not actually say anything.Philip Glass recycles Leonard That mysterious aura has been a constant in the rela- tionship between the two for almost 25 years.</p><p> In 1984, Glass set a poem of Cohen's to music as part of Que- bec's 3S0th-anniversary eelebration.</p><p> He sent it off to get permission, and the permission came ... but not a word from Cohen himself.</p><p> Did he like it? Did he hate it?'Did he even heor it? Glass simply didn't know.</p><p> Almost a decade ago, they began discussing this cur- rent collaboration.</p><p> Then Cohen disappeared, becoming a monk, studying under a master and abandoning con- temporary life for some five years while ensconced in a Zen monastery on Mount Baldy in Southern California.</p><p> Cohen "plays it down a lot, says he wasn't great in the 'renunciation department,"' says Glass, a long- time NewYorker who was famously driving a cab in 1976 when his ground-breaking opera "Einstein on the Beach" was being performed at the Met. "But he did live like a monk.</p><p> It takes courage to do that.</p><p> I don't have it." Now they've finally come together, pushing singers from the world of opera, Broadway and cabaret to de- . velop a distinctive style of singing for this particularpiece, a style Cohen has dubbed "Glassic." It's a good moment for Cohen, who's recovering rm financial mismanagement that reportedlv left him from financial mismanagement that reportedly nearly bankrupt, despite a world-renowned music cata- logue.</p><p> His prot6g6 and partner Anjani Thomas released her collaborationwith Cohen, "Blue Light," last year.</p><p> And on Aug. 7, Jennifer Warnes will issue a 20th-anni- versary edition of Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat." Glass, of course, is always busy.</p><p> Now 70, he's tour- ing with "Book of Longing," just enjoyed a revival of his Gandhi opera "Satyagraha" in London (it comes to the Met next year), has several film scores due including Woody Allen's new "Cassandra's Dream," and debuts his opera "Appomattox" in San Francisco in October.</p><p> And viewers of a recent Paul Sirion tribute on PBS saw Glass' instrumental take on "The Sounds of Silence." Which brings up more unfinished Cohen business. "I've known Paul a longtime and I discovered he and Leonard don't know each other, and I'm going to fix that," says Glass. "They should know each other, and they will, if I have anything to do with it." t
