I like the haiku in this one, but mostly I like this book for the memories it brings back of traveling with my love. ( )

Scattered Poems (City Lights Pocket Poets Series) by Jack Kerouac (2001)

A collection of B-Sides if you will.

When a writer dies young their lesser known work seems to grow in stature as audiences become hungry for new material. Kerouac has become a cottage industry for his estate; cashing in even the most obscure manuscripts and reprints with great fanfare.

One of the issues with complication such as Scattered Poems is that the quality is very touch and go. The opening salvo is a poem that evolved as Neal Cassidy, Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg passed it back and forth. While there are a lot of diamonds in this collection, there are far too many pieces of coal.

Drawn from a various publications, journals, letters, and the whole span of Kerouac’s output you get to see the whole of his development as a writer. Kerouac was a poet for modern America, and this book doesn’t quite capture that feeling. Mexico City Blues or Book of Blues is the two places to start with Kerouac's Poetry. This is best left to hardcore fans.

http://pissandvinegar.vox.com/library... ( )