Jim Morrison-An American Poet

I hope this site will bring enlightenment to those who don't know about the important contribution to the world of poetry Jim Morrison has made.  Jim always wanted to be known as a poet first, singer second.  His stellar rise to stardom as the lead singer for the rock group "The Doors" created a persona that was unlike the soft-spoken word-man he was first and foremost.  His words are both beautiful and unsettling.  He revealed much of himself through his poems, more than most of us would dare.

Read thoughtfully for Jim wrote thoughtfully.

 

A wake
Shake dreams from your hair
My pretty child, my sweet one.
Choose the day and choose the sign of your day
The day's divinity
First thing you see.
A vast radiant beach in a cool jeweled moon
Couples naked race down by its quiet side
And we laugh like soft, mad children
Smug in the woolly cotton brains of infancy.
The music and voices are all around us.
Choose, they croon, the Ancient Ones
The time has come again.
Choose now, they croon,
Beneath the moon
Beside an ancient lake.
Enter again the sweet forest,
Enter the hot dream,
Come with us.
Everything is broken up and dances.

--From "An American Prayer"

 

 

"Give me songs to sing

And emerald dreams to dream

And I will give you love unfolding."

 

Come

for all the world lies

hushed & fallen

green ships dangle

on the surface of

Ocean, & sky-birds

glide smugly among

the planes

Gaunt crippled houses

Strangle the cliffs

In the East, in the cities

a hum of life

begins, now come

-from "The Village Tapes"

 

"That's what real love amounts to--letting a person be what he really is.  Most people love you for who you pretend to be.  To keep their love, you keep pretending--performing.  You get to love your pretense.  It's true; we're locked in an image, an act--and the sad thing is, people get so used to their image, they grow attached to their masks.  They love their chains.  They forget all about who they really are.  And if you try to remind them, they hate you for it, they feel like you're trying to steal their most precious possession."  JDM

 

 

 

"You must confront your life

which is sneaking up on you

like a rapt, coiled serpent."

 

 

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"The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are.  You trade in your sense for an act.  You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask.  There can't be any large-scale revolution until there's a personal revolution, on an individual level.  It's got to happen inside first."

 

 

I am troubled

Immeasurably

By your eyes

 

I am struck

By the feather

Of your soft

Reply

 

The sound of glass

Speaks quick

Disdain

 

And conceals

What your eyes fight

To explain

 

--from Wilderness (1989)

 

THE OPENING OF THE TRUNK

Moment of inner freedom

when the mind is opened & the

infinite universe revealed

& the soul is left to wander

dazed & confus'd searching

here & there for teachers & friends.

                  

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

"In that year there was

an intense visitation

of energy.

I left school & went down

to the beach to live.

I slept on a roof.

At night the moon became

a woman's face.

I met the Spirit of Music."

 

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"Death makes angels of us all

& gives us wings where we had shoulders

Smooth as raven's claws."

 

z z z z z z z z

Why does my mind circle around you
Why do planets wonder what it
Would be like to be you

All your soft wild promises were words
Birds, endlessly in flight

Your dog is still lost in the frozen woods
or he would run to you
How can he run to you
Lunging w/blooded sickness on the snow
He's still sniffing gates & searching
Strangers for your smell
which he remembers very well

Is there a moon in your window
Is madness laughing
Can you still run down beach
rocks bed below w/out him?

s  s  s  s  s

The Endless quest a vigil

of watchtowers and fortresses

against the sea and time.

Have they won? Perhaps.

They still stand and in

their silent rooms still wander

the souls of the dead,

who keep their watch on the living.

Soon enough we shall join them.

Soon enough we shall walk

the walls of time.  We shall

miss nothing

except each other.

 

The Lords and the New Creatures (1969)

An American Prayer (1970)

Wilderness Volume 1:  The Lost Writings of Jim Morrison (1989)

An American Night (1990)

No one thought up being;

he who thinks he has

Step forward

-from Wilderness (1989)