INYIM Media Way Back Wednesday: Jim Morrison’s Newly Unleashed Autobiographic Poem ‘As I Look Back! From “The Collected Works Of Jim Morrison: Poetry, Journals, Transcripts, And Lyrics Hardcover” OUT TODAY. The Doors lead vocalist was quite the entire talented package!
“On Tuesday, June 8th, HarperCollins will publish The Collected Works of Jim Morrison: Poetry, Journals, Transcripts and Lyrics, a nearly 600-page, estate-approved collection that pulls together most of the Doors singer’s previously published work. It features everything from song lyrics to poetry, his posthumous poetry collections (Wilderness and The American Night), and a trove of unpublished handwritten material culled from 28 recently discovered notebooks.
Ahead of the book’s release, Rolling Stone is reprinting Morrison’s previously unreleased poem and the collection’s epilogue “As I Look Back,” an autobiographical piece written in verse form where the singer reminisces on his life and career, from his childhood in a military family to his days with the Doors to his dreams of a post-music life.
“The joy of performing has ended. Joy of films is pleasure of writing,” Morrison writes. “End w/fond good-bye & plans for future — Not an actor writer — filmmaker.”
The Collected Works of Jim Morrison: Poetry, Journals, Transcripts and Lyrics also boasts Morrison’s treatment for his unrealized film project The Hitchhiker, unseen family photographs, a transcript and pictures from Morrison’s final poetry recording session, and what are believed to be Morrison’s final writings — the contents of a Paris notebook from shortly before his 1971 death, “reproduced in full reading size.”
“As I Look Back”
As I look back
over my life
I am struck by post cards Ruined snap shots
faded posters Of a time, I can’t recall
Before the beach, & birth,
was the home for travelers juvenile pen
a barracks in limbo of souls sans desire
They instill desire, day by day
& night too
Parachute birth
1st moments as war
1st days of pain
Struggle toward
consciousness
I am a Scot, or so
I’m told.
Really the heir of Mystery
Christians
The child of a
Military family . . . .
1st early memories
— attention-getting baby hide from mother
& elephant walk
back thru time to that child
again, staring rotten
thru the fence at the angels
next door
early memories
Asthma
Albuquerque lawn chairs & lock’d
in garage shelves w/girl
Beautiful Mexican girl – her mother
May dance – lost shoe
“Bad boy” – No, he’s a good boy
Think of Nothing – get what you want
The Mail Box
I initiated dirt-clod
fights in the canyon
& got bombed
in the stomach by rocks
Parachutes from
silk handkerchief
Kites
Snake in the Glen
“But they were picking
on the little kids”
I told stories & led
Treasure hunts for children
I led bicycle packs
chasing girls home from
school & delighted in
spanking them
I rebelled against church
after phases of
fervor
I curried favor in school
& attack’d the teachers
I was given a
desk in the corner
I was a fool
&
The smartest kid
in class
I created a mock treasure
Tried to get blood
To hide in woods near school
a monitor stopt me
Walks in D.C. in
Negro streets. The library
& book stores. Orange
brick in warm sun.
The books & poets magic
Then sex gives greater stimulation
Than you’ve ever known &
all peace & books lose their
charm & you are thrown
back on the eye of vision
chooks – depantsing – fights – Blue Bus etc.
Trying to have a ducktail
asserted myself by wit
I have tried to learn more about
homos but it’s not easy to discuss.
This is true about sex in general,
even more than philosophy or religion.” – Rollingstone.com
