Youth today may never heard of Leonard Cohen. I recommend you look Leonard up, he was a poet and balladeer during the Vietnam War, and sang with folk stars such as Judy Collins who I’ve featured here at this site as well. (You see I was a folk singer in the 1960s too.)
Drugs (marijuana mostly) was at the center of the youth revolt against the war. There was no imminent danger to youth about being called up.
Leonard wrote this as poem in the 60s, early in the war, then revisited it as a song in the early 70s. It still stands as a poignant paean to a girl he actually did know, but never had a romantic affair.
The poetry is exquisite in describing genteel youth of that time, and I have to believe, even tho it’s not mentioned, that studying one’s navel as a type of meditation defined a condition of the drug culture of the 60s-70s that is not part of the foot-stomping tea-fit scene of the post 911 scene.
Compare the Suzanne of this poetry with the Miss Haughty Pants of the films we are seeing almost daily. There was an essence found in many of the college youth in the 60s that simply can’t be found any longer.
