Wilderness: The Lost Writings of Jim Morrison, Volume 1 by Jim Morrison Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Wilderness: The Lost Writings of Jim Morrison, Volume 1
Book Review: Strangely beautiful and mesmerizing...hypnotic
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this book and you don't have to be a lover of poetry to admire and appreciate the poems contained in this book. Jim Morrison was a man who was deeply committed to his art. As the lead singer and lyricist of The Doors (one of the greatest rock bands of all time) he took special care that his lyrics as well as his poems aim to release people from the constraints of what is normal and that we as people should follow our own destiny and draw our own conclusions and live our life the way that we want it. Jim Morrison was a tortured, confused and misunderstood soul but nevertheless a genius. An enigma and legend that will live on forever. The lizard king, the electric poet cannot and will not be silenced ever... as long as his music and poetry continues to thrive in all who appreciate and love his unique and captavating artistry. Get this book and you will not disappointed.Book Review: Mesmerizing , Magical, Mystical Poetry
Summary: 5 Stars
Jim Morrison was a poet far, far ahead of his time. His words evoke dancing, metaphorical images that bloom in your mind like rare hothouse flowers. You can feel the angst, pain and beauty of his soul in these poems.
If you love poetry, this book is a must-have. I keep it by my bed and read it every night. I've had some pretty awesome dreams, too!
Book Review: Haunting
Summary: 5 Stars
The words and images in this book have a way with your mind. They stick in your subconscious as if they are the stories your ancestors told around the campfire.
Jim Morrison's poetry is a mix of Greek mythology, and Shamanic mysticism. Throw in some books from long ago that are deep in the blood of mankind, and you end up with Morrison.
His poetry does not talk about himself. Instead he writes about archetypical themes in a modern setting. His setting was the 60's, which provided a lot of material: Vietnam, new drugs, the Women's Rights Movement, and the Civil Rights Movement.
All of these things were ripping at the fabric of America (and humanity). Morrison's poetry attacks these chaotic times head on. However, he writes as if he were a 19th century poet in the mold of Lord Byron, or Arthur Rimbaud. He achieved his goal, and a place in history.
Book Review: Volume I (of 2) of Jim Morrison's Poetry
Summary: 5 Stars
A "Must Have" book for any serious fan of Jim Morrison with Jim Morrison's own original poems from which many of the Doors' songs' lyrics were derived. Inner pages includes these poems in Jim Morrison's own handwriting. Provides additional insight into his work as one fourth of the Doors and beyond.
Book Review: "I am a guide to the Labyrinth"
Summary: 5 Stars
"Wilderness", fitting some what messily between "The Lords and the New Creatures" and "The American Night" as the centerpiece of Jim Morrison's eternaly unfinished poetic opus, offers us a fleeting glimpse into the best--and worst--parts of a visionary psyche. Morrison, unlike so many of the poetic idols (Shelley, Byron, Blake) he never lived long enough to equal (and perhaps transcend?) was not afraid to expose, explore and cut right down the middle any experience, line of thought, or moments of madness he had. This works to both his benefit and detriment in his poetry as it did in his short life.
More than the larger than life persona he tries to project in his early poems: ("Power)", Morrison is a conceptual and verbal magician, able to pack the weirdest and most minute philosophical observations into a few lines: "A man rakes leaves into a heap in his yard, a pile, and leans on his rake and burns them utterly/The fragrance fills the forest/children pause and heed the smell/which will become nostalgia in several years" (pg. 17). This is not all "intoxicated" poetry, not by any means. Beneath all the poetic personas Morrison adopts through these crashing, manically curious experimental dives into the extremes of consciousness, one personality emerges again and again: that of the prophet. In the tradition of Artaud and Rimbaud, Morrison as poet gives us a less polished but equally powerful diagnosis of a corrupt and diseased culture through his Berriganesque visions of hippiedom, his visionary observations of America as a nation and his place in it("What am I doing in the bullring arena?"), tributes to fallen friends ("Ode To Brian Jones While Thinking of LA"),
and the recognition of his own fate in "As I Look Back".
There is something else in this poetry behind the surreal streams of consciousness and the subtle calls to personal change, something which is so quiet and undetectable at first, and then which simply explodes in his retrospectives and self evaluations: vicious despair. One can feel the rumbling chaos of the poet's life just by reading him for any extended period of time and it is not shocking when at long last the work simply stops.
That said, this is some of the best poetry of the 60's generation, and not only that generation. Morrison had the kind of voice one finds a few times every hundred years, and the ultimate tragedy is that he never gave himself the chance to nurture it to maturity. A must, absolute must read for lovers of poetry that falls outside the pedestrian and comfortably middle class.