Jim Morrison Poetry

Photo: Jim Morrison & Pamela courson, Jim morrison


THE OPENING OF THE TRUNK

Moment of inner freedom
when the mind is opened and the
infinite universe revealed
& the soul is left to wander
dazed & confus'd searching
here & there for teachers & friends.
________________________________________
Moment of Freedom
as the prisoner
blinks in the sun
like a mole
from his hole

a child's 1st trip
away from home

That moment of Freedom
________________________________________
LAmerica
Cold treatment of our empress
LAmerica
The Transient Universe
LAmerica
Instant communion and
communication
lamerica
emeralds in glass
lamerica
searchlights at twi-light
lamerica
stoned streets in the pale dawn
lamerica
robed in exile
lamerica
swift beat of a proud heart
lamerica
eyes like twenty
lamerica
swift dream
lamerica
frozen heart
lamerica
soldiers doom
lamerica
clouds & struggles
lamerica
Nighthawk
doomed from the start
lamerica
"That's how I met her,
lamerica
lonely and frozen
lamerica
& sullen, yes
lamerica
right from the start"

Then stop.
Go.
The wilderness between.
Go round the march.
________________________________________ he enters stage:

Blood boots. Killer storm.
Fool's gold. God in a heaven.
Where is she?
Have you seen her?
Has anyone seen this girl?
snap shot (projected)
She's my sister.
Ladies & gentlemen:
please attend carefully to these words & events
It's your last chance, our last hope.
In this womb or tomb, we're free of the swarming streets.
The black fever which rages is safely out those doors
My friends & I come from
Far Arden w/ dances, &
new music
Everywhere followers accrue
to our procession.
Tales of Kings, gods, warriors
and lovers dangled like
jewels for your careless pleasure

I'm Me!
Can you dig it.
My meat is real.
My hands--how they move
balanced like lithe demons
My hair--so twined and writhing
The skin of my face--pinch the cheeks
My flaming sword tongue
spraying verbal fire-flys
I'm real.
I'm human
But I'm not an ordinary man
No No No
________________________________________
What are you doing here?
What do you want?
Is it music?
We can play music.
But you want more.
You want something & someone new.
Am I right?
Of course I am.
You want ecstasy
Desire & dreams.
Things not exactly what they seem.
I lead you this way, he pulls that way.
I'm not singing to an imaginary girl.
I'm talking to you, my self.
Let's recreate the world.
The palace of conception is burning.

Look. See it burn.
Bask in the warm hot coals.

You're too young to be old
You don't need to be told
You want to see things as they are.
You know exactly what I do
Everything
________________________________________
I am a guide to the Labyrinth

Monarch of the protean towers
on this cool stone patio
above the iron mist
sunk in its own waste
breathing its own breath
________________________________________
POWER

I can make the earth stop in
its tracks. I made the
blue cars go away.

I can make myself invisible or small.
I can become gigantic & reach the
farthest things. I can change
the course of nature.
I can place myself anywhere in
space or time.
I can summon the dead.
I can perceive events on other worlds,
in my deepest inner mind,
& in the minds of others.

I can

I am
________________________________________
People need Connectors
Writers, heroes, stars, leaders
To give life form.
A child's sand boat facing
the sun.
Plastic soldiers in the miniature
dirt war. Forts.
Garage Rocket Ships

Ceremonies, theatre, dances
To reassert Tribal needs & memories
a call to worship, uniting
above all, a reversion,
a longing for family & the
safety magic of childhood
________________________________________
The grand highway
is
crowded
w/
lovers
&
searchers
&
leavers
so
eager
to
please
&
forget.

Wilderness
________________________________________
Now is blessed
The rest
remembered
________________________________________
A man rakes leaves into
a heap in his pard, a plie,
& leans on his rake &
burns them utterly.
The fragrance fills the forest
children pause & heed the
smell, which will become
nostalgia in several years
________________________________________
Sirens
Water
Rain & Thunder
Jet from the base
Hot searing insect cry
The frogs & crickets
Doors open & close
The smash of glass
The Soft Parade
An accident
Rustle of silk, nylon
Watering the dry grass
Fire
Bells
Rattlesnake, whistles, castanets
Lawn mower
Good Humor man
Skates & wagons
Bikes
________________________________________
Where'd you learn about
Satan-out of a book
Love?-out of a box
________________________________________
night of sin (The Fall)
-1st sex, a feeling of having
done this same act in time before
O No, not again
________________________________________
Between childhood, boyhood,
adolescence
& manhood (maturity) there
should be sharp lines drawn w/
Tests, deaths, feats, rites
stories, songs, & judgements
________________________________________
Men who go out on ships
To escape sin & the mire of cities
watch the placenta of evening stars
from the deck, on their backs
& cross the equator
& perform rituals to exhume the dead
dangerous initiation
To mark passage to new levels

To feel on the verge of an exorcism
a rite of passage
To wait, or seek manhood
enlightenment in a gun

To kill childhood, innocence
in an instant
________________________________________
LAMERICA

Trade-routes
guide lines
The Vikings & explorers
Discoverers
The unconscious

a map of the states
The veins of hiways
Beauty of a map
Hidden connections
Fast trampled forest

Madness in a whisper
neon crackle
The hiss of trees
A city growls

rich vast & sullen
like a slow monster
come to fat
& die
________________________________________
THE ANATOMY OF ROCK

The 1st electric wildness came
over the people
on sweet Friday.
Sweat was in the air.
The channel beamed,
token of power.
Incense brewed darkly.
Who could tell them that here
it would end?

One school bus crashed w/ a train.
This was the Crossroads.
Mercury stained.
I couldn't get out of my seat.
The road was littered
w/ dead jitterbugs.
Help,
we'll be late for class.

The secret flurry of rumor
marched over the yard &
pinned us unwittingly
Mt. fever.
A girl stripped naked on the
base of the flagpole.

In the restrooms all was cool
& silent
w/ the salt-green of latrines.
Blankets were needed.

Ropes fluttered.
Smiles flattered
& haunted.

Lockers pried open
& secrets discovered.

Ah sweet music.

Wild sounds in the night
Angel siren voices.
The baying of great hounds.
Cars screaming thru gears
& shrieks
on the wild road
Where the tires skip & slide
into dangerous curves.

Favorite corners.
Cheerleaders raped in summer
buildings.
Holding hands
& bopping toward Sunday.

Those lean sweet desperate hours.

Time searched the hallways
for a mind.
Hands kept time.
The climate altered like a
visible dance.

Night-time women.
Wondrous sacraments of doubt
Sprang sullen in bursts
of fear & guilt
in the womb's pit hole
below
The belt of the beast
________________________________________
Worship w/ words, w/
sounds, hands, all
joyful playful &
obscene-in the insane
infant.
________________________________________
Old men worship w/ long
noses, old soulful eyes.
Young girls worship,
exotic, indian, w/ robes
who make us feel foolish
for acting w/ our eyes.
Lost in the vanity of the senses
which got us where we are.
Children worship but seldom
act at it. Who needs
temples & couches & T.V.

We can do it on a sunny
floor w/ friends & make
any sound or movement
that comes. Roll on our
backs screaming w/ mirth
glad in the guilt of our
madness. Better to be
cool in our worship &
gain the respect of the
ancient & wise wearing
those robes. They know
the secret of mind-change
reality.
________________________________________
"Have you ever seen God?"
-a mandala. A symmetrical angel.

Felt? yes. Fucking. The Sun.
Heard? Music. Voices.
Touched? an animal. your hand.
Tasted? Rare meat, corn, water,
& wine.
________________________________________
An angel runs
Thru the sudden light
Thru the room
A ghost precedes us
A shadow follows us
And each time we stop
We fall
________________________________________
No one thought up being;
he who thinks he has
Step forward
________________________________________
Shrill demented sparrows bark
The sun into being. They rule
dawn's kingdom. The cars-
a rising chorus- Then
workmen's songs & hammers
The children of the schoolyard,
a hundred high voices,
complete the orchestration
________________________________________
"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."
________________________________________
An appearance of the devil
on a Venice canal.
Running, I saw a Satan
or Satyr, moving beside
me, a fleshy shadow
of my secret mind. Running,
Knowing.
________________________________________
The day I left the beach

A hairy Satyr running
behind & a little to the
right.

In the holy solipsism
of the young

Now I can't walk thru a city
street w/out eying each
single pedestrian. I feel
their vibes thru my
skin, the hair on my neck
-it rises.
________________________________________
THE FEAR
Eternal consciousness
in the Void
(makes trial and jail seem almost
friendly)

a Kiss in the Storm

(Madman at the wheel
gun at the neck
scape populous & arching
coolly)

A barn
a cabin attic

Your own face
stationary
in the mirrored window

fear of restroom's
Tragic cold
neon

I'm freezing

animals
dead

white wings of
rabbits

grey velvet deer

The Canyon

The car a craft
in wretched
SPACE

Sudden movements

& your past
to warm you
in Spiritless
Night

The Lonely HWY
Cold hiker

Afraid of wolves
& his own
Shadow
________________________________________
The Wolf,
Who lives under the rock
has invited me
to drink of his cool
Water.
Not to splash or bathe
But leave the sun
& know the dead desert
night
& the cold men
who play there.
________________________________________
a ha
Come on, now
luring the Traveler
Mighty Voyager
Curious, into its dark womb
The graves grinning
Indians of night
The eyes of night
Westward lurking
into the brothel, into the blood bath
into the Dream
The dark Dream of conquest
& Voyage
into night, Westward into Night
________________________________________
LAMERICA

Clothed in sunlight
restled in waiting
dying of fever

Changed shapes of an empire
Starling invaders
Vast promissory notes of joy

Wanton, willful & passive
Married to doubt
Clothed in great warring monuments
of glory

How it has changed you
How slowly estranged you
Solely arranged you

Beg you for mercy
________________________________________
The Crossraods
a place where ghosts
reside to whisper into
the ears of travellers &
interest them in their fate

Hitchhiker drinks:
"I call again on the dark
hidden gods of blood"

-Why do you call us?
You know our price. It
never changes. Death of
you will give you life
& free you from a vile
fate. But it is getting late.

-If I could see you again
& talk w/ you, & walk a
short while in your company,
& drink the heady brew
of your conversations,
I thought

-to rescue a soul already
ruined. To achieve respite.
To plunder green gold
on a pirate raid & bring
to camp the glory of old.

-As the capesman faces
poisoned horns & drinks
red victory; the soldier,
too, w/ his trophy, a
pierced helmet; & the
ledge-walker shuddering
his way into inward grace

-(laughter) Well, then. Would
you mock yourself?

-No.

-Soon our voices must become
one, or one must leave.
________________________________________
Forest strong sandals
burnt geometry fingers
around a fire
reading history in blackened
books, charcoal silence
in moot splendor

Flame-tree
Sire, we met in Eden
The troubled time
we had
rustling in the night leaves
a sniper aimed at our window
a kitten mewing in the blasted
strong air
I must go see

-You've found your Voice,
friend, after all else
I recognize fast the
Strong sure tones of
a poet
was it a question
Search or of strangling?
I wonder
We never talked
But welcome here
to the camp fire
Share our meal
w/ us
& tell us of your life
& the hanging

-Well 1st I screamed
& I was a child again alive
Then nothing til the age
of 5

& then summers & the racetrack
I looked for a girl in
New Mexican
bars
& found jail
The prostitute looked out
her cell & saw
Fuck god scratched
on a leprous wall

-You're rambling boy
what of the rest
the jazz highway
he winks.

-I got picked up
& rode through the night

-did you see any buildings

-did I...
What was I doing
of course we danced plenty
She had nice sides
the cop hit me
Stop, I don't remember

-The logs are melting
we must move on
The fire's ending
we'll hear more
at the next altar

[musical interlude]

Trees
Train-death
The American Night
We went through 5 cords
of wood this winter

-he told me beautiful stories
& had the most beautiful visions
He was a truly religious man
at the end

-you know, I like you guys
god-damn!

(I saw this cat run out
of the ocean, one night,
and beat-off into a fire)

I'm going down to Mexico
To this border town I heard
about & I'm gonna buy
me a girl & bring her
back up here & marry her, it's
true. This guy told me.
A friend of his knew someone who

-You're too much
________________________________________
There was preserved
in her
The fresh miracle
of
surprise
________________________________________
open

The Night is young
& full of rest
I can't describe
the way she's dress'd
She'll pander to some strange
requests
Anything that you suggest
Anything to please her guest
________________________________________
SIRENS

Midnight
criminal metabolism of guilt forest
Rattlesnakes whistles catcalls

Remove me from this hall of mirrors
This filthy glass

Are you her
Do you look like that
How could you be when
no one ever could
________________________________________
Poet of the call-girl storm

She left a note on the bedroom door.
"If I'm out, bring me to."
________________________________________
I dropped by to see you
late last night
But you were out
like a light
Your head was on the floor
& rats played pool w/ your eyes

Death is a good disguise
for late at night

Wrapping all its games in its calm garden

But what happens
when the guests return
& all unmask
& you are asked
to leave
for want of a smile

I'll still take you then
But I'm your friend
________________________________________
ODE
NEW YORK MAIDENS

everyone has Their own magic

There is no death

so nothing matters

High Style

Flash & forgive me

high button shoes

clean arrangement

messy breeding

love's triumph

everlasting hope & fulfillment
________________________________________
THE AMERICAN NIGHT

for leather accrues
The miracle of the streets
The scents & somgs &
pollens of existence

Shiny blackness
so totally naked she was
Totally un-hung-up

We looked around
lights now on
To see our fellow travellers
________________________________________
The American Prayer
AWAKE GHOST SONG
Is everybody in? Is everybody in? Is everybody in? The ceremony is about to begin.
WAKE UP!
You can't remember where it was had this dream stopped?
AWAKE
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 it's quiet side
And we laugh like soft, mad children
Smug in the wooly 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.
DAWN'S HIGHWAY
Indians scattered on dawn's highway bleeding Ghosts crowd the young child's fragile eggshell mind.
Me and my  ah  mother and father   and a grandmother and a grandfather   were driving through the desert, at dawn, and a truck load of Indian workers had either hit another car, or just   I don't know what happened   but there were Indians scattered all over the highway, bleeding to death.
So the car pulls up and stops. That was the first time I tasted fear. I musta' been about four   like a child is like a flower, his head is just floating in the breeze, man. The reaction I get now thinking about it, looking back   is that the souls of the ghosts of those dead Indians ...maybe one or two of 'em...were just running around freaking out, and just leaped into my soul. And they're still in there.
Indians scattered on dawn's highway bleeding Ghosts crowd the young child's fragile eggshell mind.
Blood in the streets in the town of New Haven Blood stains the roofs and the palm trees of Venice Blood in my love in the terrible summer Bloody red sun of Phantastic L.A.
Blood screams her brain as they chop off her fingers Blood will be born in the birth if a nation Blood is the rose of mysterious union Blood on the rise, it's following me.
Indian, Indian what did you die for? Indian says, nothing at all.
NEWBORN AWAKENING
Gently they stir, gently rise The dead are newborn awakening With ravaged limbs and wet souls Gently they sigh in rapt funeral amazement Who called these dead to dance? Was it the young woman learning to play the ghost song on her baby grand? Was it the wilderness children? Was it the ghost god himself, stuttering, cheering, chatting blindly? I called you up to anoint the earth I called you to announce sadness falling like burned skin I called you to wish you well
To glory in self like a new monster And now I call you to pray
TO COME OF AGE
A military station in the desert.
Can we resolve the past Lurking jaws, joints of time? The Base To come of age in a dry place Holes and caves.
My friend drove and hour each day from the mountains The bus gives you a hard on with books in your lap Someone shot the bird in the afternoon dance show They gave out free records to the best couple Spades dance best, from the hip.
BLACK POLISHED CHROME (Latino Chrome.)
The music was new black polished chrome And came over the summer like liquid night. The DJ's took pills to stay awake and play for seven days They went to the studio And someone knew him Someone knew the TV showman
He came to our homeroom party and played records And when he left in the hot noon sun and walked to his car We saw the chooks had written F U C K on his windshield He wiped it off with a rag and smiling cooly drove away He's rich. Got a big car.
My gang will get you Scenes of rape in the arroyo Seduction in cars, abandoned buildings Fights at the food stand The dust the shoes Open shirts and raised collars Bright sculptured hair.
Hey man, you want girls, pills, grass? C'mon... I show you good time. This place has everything. C'mon... I show you.
ANGELS AND SAILORS
Angels and sailors rich girls backyard fences tents
Dreams watching each other narrowly soft luxuriant cars Girls in garages, stripped out to get liquor and clothes half gallons of wine and six packs of beer Jumped, humped, born to suffer made to undress in the wilderness.
I will never treat you mean
Never start no kind of scene
I'll tell you every place and person that I've been.
Always a playground instructor, never a killer
Always a bridesmaid on the verge of fame or over
He manouvered two girls into his hotel room
One a friend, the other, the young one, a newer stranger
Vaguely Mexican or Puerto Rican
Poor boys thighs and buttock scarred by a father's belt
She's trying to rie
Story of her boyfriend, of teenage stoned death games
Handsome lad, dead in a car
Confusion
No connections
Come here
I love you
Peace on earth
Will you die for me?
Eat me
This way
The end
I'll always be true
Never go out, sneaking out on you, babe
If you'll only show me Far Arden again.
I'm surprised you could get it up He whips her lightly, sardonically, with belt. Haven't I been through enough? she asks Now dressed and leaving The Spanish girl begins to bleed She says her period It's Catholic heaven I have an ancient Indian crucifix around my neck My chest is hard and brown Lying on stained, wretched sheets with a bleeding virgin We could plan a murder Or start a religion.
STONED IMMACULATE
I'll tell you this... No eternal reward will forgive us now For wasting the dawn.
Back in those days everything was simpler and more confused One summer night, going to the pier I ran into two young girls The blonde one was called Freedom The dark one, Enterprise We talked and they told me this story Now listen to this... I'll tell you about Texas radio and the big beat Soft driven, slow and mad Like some new language Reaching your head with the cold, sudden fury of a divine messenger
Let me tell you about heartache and the loss of god
Wandering, wandering in hopless night
Out here in the perimeter there are no stars
Out here we is stoned
Immaculate.
THE MOVIE
The movie will begin in five moments
The mindless voice announced
All those unseated will await the next show.
We filed slowly, languidly into the hall
The auditorium was vast and silent
As we seated and were darkened, the voice continued.
The program for this evening is not new
You've seen this entertainment through and through
You've seen your birth your life and death
you might recall all of the rest
Did you have a good world when you died?
Enough to base a movie on?.
I'm getting out of here Where are you going? To the other side of morning Please don't chase the clouds, pagodas
Her cunt gripped him like a warm, friendly hand.
It's alright, all your friends are here When can I meet them? After you've eaten I'm not hungry Uh, we meant beaten
Silver stream, silvery scream
Oooooh, impossible concentration.
CURSES, INVOCATION
Curses, Invocations
Weird bate headed mongrels
I keep expecting one of you to rise
Large buxom obese queen
Garden hogs and cunt veterans
Quaint cabbage saints
Shit hoarders and individualists
Drag strip officials
Tight tipped losers and
Lustful fuck salesman
My militant dandies
All strange orders of monsters
Hot on the tail of the woodvine
We welcome you to our procession
Here come the Comedians
look at them smile
Watch them dance an Indian mile
Look at them gesture
How aplomb
So to gesture everyone Words dissemble Words be quick Words resemble walking sticks Plant them they will grow Watch them waver so I'll always be a word man Better then a bird man
AMERICAN NIGHT
All hail the American night!
What was that? I don't know Sounds like guns ...thunder.
(Roadhouse Blues)
...Alright! Alright! Alright! Hey, listen! Listen! Listen, man! listen, man! I don't know how many you people believe in astrology...
Yeah, that's right that's right, baby, L..I am a Sagittarius The most philosophical of all the signs But anyway, I don't believe in it I think it's a bunch of bullshit, myself But I tell you this, man, I tell you this I don't know what's gonna happen, man, but I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames
Alright!
THE WORLD ON FIRE
The World on Fire ...Taxi from Africa...The Grand Hotel... He was drunk a big party last night back going back in all directions sleeping these insane hours I'll never wake up in a good mood again I'm sick of these stinky boots
LAMENT
Lament for my cock
Sore and crucified
I seek to know you
Aquiring soulful wisdom
You can open walls of mystery
Stripshow
How to aquire death in the morning show
TV death which the child absorbs
Deathwell mystery which makes me write
Slow train, the death of my cock gives life
Forgive the poor old people who gave us entry
Taught us god in the child's prayer in the night
Guitar player
Ancient wise satyr
Sing your ode to my cock
Caress it's lament
Stiffen and guide us, we frozen
Lost cells
I sacrifice my cock on the alter of silence
THE HITCHHIKER
Thoughts in time and out of season The Hitchhiker stood by the side of the road And leveled his thumb In the calm calculus of reason
Hi. How you doin'? I just got back into town, L.A I was out in the desert for awhile
"Riders on the storm"
Yeah. In the middle of it
"Riders on the storm"
Right...
"Into this world we're born"
Hey, listen, man, I really got a problem
"Into this world we're thrown"
When I was out on the desert, ya know
"Like a dog without a bone An actor out on loan"
I don't know how to tell you
"Riders on the storm" but, ah, I killed somebody "There's a killer on the road" No... "His brain is squirming like a toad"
It's no big deal, ya know
I don't think anybody will find out about it, but... " take a long holiday" just, ah...
"Let your children play"
this guy gave me a ride, and ah... "If you give this man a ride" started giving me a lot of trouble "Sweet family will die" and I just couldn't take it, ya know "Killer on the road" And I wasted him
Yeah
AN AMERICAN PRAYER/ HOUR FOR MAGIC/ FREEDOM EXISTS/ A FEAST OF FRIENDS
Do you know the warm progress under the stars?
Do you know we exist? filled with green death
(I touched her thigh & death smiled)
We have assembled inside this ancient & insane theatre
To propagate our lust for life & flee the swarming wisdom of the streets The barns are stormed The windows kept & only one of all the rest To dance & save us
With the divine mockery of words Music inflames temperament (When the true King's murderers are allowed to roam free and 1000 Magicians arise in the land) Where are the feasts we are promised
Where is the wine The New Wine (dying on the vine) resident mockery give us an hour for magic We of the purple glove We of the starling flight & velvet hour We of arabic pleasures's breed We of sundome & the night Give us a creed To believe A night of lust Give us trust in The Night Give of color hundred hues a rich mandala***