A new collection of Leonard Cohen’s final poems has been announced

A collection of Leonard Cohen’s final poems, completed in the months before the Canadian artist’s death in 2016, is slated to be published in 2018.

There’s good news for fans of Leonard Cohen’s work. A collection of his final poems will be published next year. In addition to poems, which Cohen selected and ordered for the book, The Flame will include material from Cohen’s notebooks, which he maintained in poetic form and which, according to the book’s publisher, offer “an unprecedentedly intimate look” inside the artist’s life and mind.

The book was finished only days before his death. (AFP)

Also included in the volume will be prose, illustrations and the full lyrics to Cohen’s last three albums, as well as the lyrics he wrote for the album “Blue Alert” by his collaborator Anjani. “During the final months of his life, Leonard had a singular focus -- completing this book taken largely from his unpublished poems and selections from his notebooks. The flame and how our culture threatened its extinction was a central concern. ...This book, finished only days before his death, reveals to all the intensity of his inner fire,” said Robert Kory, Cohen’s manager and Trustee of the Cohen Estate.

While perhaps best known for his music and songwriting, Cohen was likewise a novelist, poet and painter, publishing numerous collections of poetry beginning in the 1950s as well as two novels. This final work will be published on October 16, 2018.