I came late to The Doors, but I was hooked for many years. I even worked to be stationed in Southern California to catch some residual magic that the Doors may have left. I went to Venice Beach to see the giant mural of Jim Morrison on the building he used to stay at. That was all over thirty years ago. I still listen to The Doors and the lyrics still pop right into my head.

The American Night: The Lost Writings is not as lost as the title makes it out to be. I wore out a few cassettes of American Prayer in my day and in reading now the music and beat enters my reading. There is an urge to follow the silent music by reading out loud. In other sections complete songs appear like the "Soft Parade," "Celebration of the Lizard," and "Run With Me."

One section is entitled "The Hitchhiker" is written as a screenplay draft. It is murder and an unbalanced murderer, who seems to be the inspiration or inspired from "The End." For me, there was a mix of known and unknown. A great deal of the writing was well worth reading a few I guess were fillers, but all in all well worth the read.


This book was not read for a review. ( )

I read a decent amount of poetry, but struggled to come away with meaning and an impact with a lot of these. It gets pretty out there and you’re always wondering how much is focused and thought through and how much is at random.

But I sure love The Doors ( )

The celebrated lead singer of The Doors, Jim Morrison is a legend of rock and roll. The American Night presents Morrison's previously unpublished work in its truest form. With their nightmarish images, bold associative leaps, and volcanic power of emotion, these works are the unmistakable artifacts of a great, wild voice and heart.

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."

Fascinating glimpse of some of the poetry of the legendary Jim Morrison taken from his journals, notebooks and typescripts. Varies from the rich and incredibly lyrical to the completely off-the-wall. ( )