Obviously Jim Morrison was a very creative person and he reportedly wrote constantly. Morrison wrote stories, screenplays, essays, and more, but poetry was his favorite form of self-expression. Much of the unpublished work contained in this volume feels like a sketch or study or unfinished snippet or idea. As one might expect, a lot is pretty wild and was undoubtedly written under the influence of drugs and alcohol. On the whole, there's not much you'd want to keep, however there are some lovely images and nice turns of phrase here and there. The last few sections of the book contain longer poems that were much more enjoyable and seemed more cohesive.
This slim book also contains some classic photographs of Morrison and copies of the poems in his own handwriting. It opens with a short essay by Morrison himself on how the interview is the perfect art form for today, especially the self interview, which is funny, smart and a bit inspiring. It should be read by social media influencers everywhere. ( )

People need connectors
Writers, heroes, stars,
leaders
To give life form.

I have been a Doors fan since the late 1970s when rock music first started to speak to me as more than just music. The Doors were an influence not only on me but people I soon came to listen too, like Patti Smith. Even now, at work and being the old guy in the shop, its good to hear Millennials putting The Doors on the shop stereo.

There is little doubt that Ray Manzarek was a musical genius, but he could not hold the band together after Morrison's passing. Whether you believe Morrison was a poet or simply someone clever with words, he was much more than the average front man for a band. I enjoyed the words and the writing. In fact, I liked this collection better than The Lords and The New Creatures.

Wilderness provides some insight into the creation of the band's lyrics. Common themes throughout the collection are the ideas of freedom, the infinite, shamanism, the color green. There are several poems titled LAmericia. The combination of Los Angeles and America. The star of what is or was America to Morrison. Reading the lines that contain lyrics from the Soft Parade puts the music into the readers head gives the poem an extra layer rhythm. The inclusion of hand written notes a welcome addition to the writing. A good collection for Doors fans. ( )

Eternal and Powerfully Visionary

I think that Jim Morrison had an approach to poetry that was not unlike the ancient Oriental method described by Wei T'ai in the 11th century; "Poetry presents the thing in order to covey the feeling. It should be precise about the thing and reticent about the feeling, for as soon as the mind responds and connects with the thing the feeling shows in words; this is how poetry enters deeply into us. If the poet presents directly feelings which overwhelm him, and keeps nothing back to linger as an aftertaste, he stirs us superficially; he cannot start the hands and feet involuntarily waving and tapping in time, far less strengthen morality and refine culture, set heaven and earth in motion and call up spirits!"

Morrison mentions this of poetry in an interview; "Listen, real poetry doesn't say anything, it just ticks off the possibilities. Opens all doors. You can walk through any one that suits you.. . . and that's why poetry appeals to me so much - because it's so eternal. As long as there are people, they can remember words and combinations of words. Nothing else can survive a holocaust but poetry and songs. No one can remember an entire novel. No one can describe a film, a piece of sculpture, a painting, but so long as there are human beings, songs and poetry can continue.
If my poetry aims to achieve anything, It's to deliver people from the limited ways in which they see and feel."

Morrison has remained an influence on my work for over 20 years now-I remember classes in Graduate school in which his poems or name would come up and it was always in a disregarding fashion, yet his books of poetry have been among the highest sellers of all time in that genre (and continue to be). Morrison was Blakean in poetic sensibility and Nietzschian in philosophy which is a terrifying combination if you think about it-he sought to be rid of the 'Mind Forged Manacles' that Blake spoke of and also desired a 'World as a will to power and nothing more' as Nietzsche mentions.
There is something of the eternal and the powerfully visionary about Morrison's work that remains- he was and also is a controversial figure, a poet that attempted to re-create the theater of Artaud in a way that would inform later performers like Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson. I think that Morrison's contribution to modern poetry was much more significant than he is currently being given credit for in the Academy.
* Notes about Morrison regarding his poetry by the Poet Michael McClure; " One of the things I like about this biography is that it shows that Jim knew himself to be a poet. That was the basis of my friendship and brotherhood with him,-I know of no better poet of Jim's generation. Few poets have been such public figures or entertainers (perhaps Mayakovsky in Russia in the twenties and thirties) and none have had so brief or so powerful a career."

Jim Morrison was, above all else, a writer. During his short 27 years, he wrote a little of everything; poetry, prose, song lyrics, film scripts, plays, you name it. Here we have a collection of his poetry.

This is a book that I picked up in Raleigh back when I was a student at NCSU. I can't quite remember, but I think this might have been the first book I ever purchased from Edward McCay's (the first of so, so many). It fell into my stacks of unread books until just recently.

Even before reading the afterword, you can tell that this particular collection is taken directly from Morrison's notebooks and journals, and that probably a vast majority of the work is unfinished. The editors even include photocopies of pages featuring the rough original in Jim's handwriting.

Where they could, the editors have tried to keep the work in chronological order, even though Jim apparently didn't date much of his work (probably thinking that he would wait and date the final version of the poem once he was satisfied with it). It is definitely an interesting read. ( )

I am a big fan of Jim Morrison's poetry and love this collection. ( )