Leonard Cohen - Happens to the Heart

I was always working steady

But I never called it art

I got my shit together

Meeting Christ and reading Marx

It failed my little fire

But it spread the dying spark

Go tell the young messiah

What happens to the heart

There's a mist of summer kisses

Where I tried to double-park

The rivalry was vicious

The women were in charge

It was nothing, it was business

But it left an ugly mark

I've come here to revisit

What happens to the heart

I was selling holy trinkets

I was dressing kind of sharp

Had a pussy in the kitchen

And a panther in the yard

In the prison of the gifted

I was friendly with the guards

So I never had to witness

What happens to the heart

I should have seen it coming

After all, I knew the chart

Just to look at her was trouble

It was trouble from the start

Sure we played a stunning couple

But I never liked the part

It ain't pretty, it ain't subtle

What happens to the heart

Now the angel's got a fiddle

The devil's got a harp

Every soul is like a minnow

Every mind is like a shark

Me, I've broken every window

But the house, the house is dark

I care but very little

What happens to the heart

Then I studied with this beggar

He was filthy, he was scarred

By the claws of many women

He had failed to disregard

No fable here, no lesson

No singing meadowlark

Just a filthy beggar guessing

What happens to the heart

I was always working steady

But I never called it art

It was just some old convention

Like the horse before the cart

I had no trouble betting

On the flood, against the ark

You see, I knew about the ending

What happens to the heart

I was handy with a rifle

My father's .303

I fought for something final

Not the right to disagree