OTTAWA - Leonard Cohen skipped onto the Southam Hall stage, knelt on one knee as if proposing marriage and sang Dance Me to the End of Love.

Not only was it a surprisingly spry move on the part of the 74-year-old poet, singer and former Buddhist monk, but it was also a fitting indication of what was to come in the first of two concerts at the National Arts Centre's Southam Hall last night.

Few songwriters have captured spiritual yearning and fired the erotic imagination like Cohen.

But now, as the senior high priest of love songs showed a remarkable durability as a charismatic interpreter of his own songs of the flesh and of the spirit, it's clear that his poetic reach has only intensified with age.

Wearing a chic black suit and fedora and ably backed by the soft jazz ensemble of Javier Mas on bandurria and laud, Dino Soldo on winds, guitarist Bob Metzer, Raphael Bernardo Diode on drums, Neil Larson on keyboards, bassist Roscoe Beck and three singers, it was apparent that Cohen is relishing the opportunity to perform again.

It wasn't supposed to be this good. Cohen only reluctantly agreed to do concerts after being defrauded out of $5 million, leaving him nearly bankrupt.

But instead of relying on the goodwill of his fans, Cohen delved deep into the music, performing with the energy and surprisingly potent musical imagination that often illuminated even familiar songs such as Who By Fire with new and sometimes disturbing meanings.

Here was Cohen the elder, no longer the singer of earnest love songs, but the wise old man fondly remembering the romance of youth.

With a voice like granite and dramatic timing, it didn't take Cohen long to seduce an already enraptured audience, singing the cautionary tale of The Future and the warm R&B There Ain't No Cure for Love. There was a hint of the younger Cohen in his plaintive vocal prime on Bird on a Wire, declaiming Everybody Knows, the sermon of My Secret Life, and inspired versions of Who By Fire and Chelsea Hotel #2 that sounded sweeter with time.

He barely spoke throughout the set, other than to thank the fans for coming, and joking about getting old.

Cohen was less introspective in the second half, which he began at the keyboard to play Tower of Song, Suzanne, and included Hallelujah.

Cohen's concert turned out to be much more than a night of fond nostalgia. It was an epic performance by a skilled poet.

Leonard Cohen performs again tonight at the NAC at 8 p.m.