THE VILLAGE TAPES: POEMS RECORDED DECEMBER 7, 1970
      

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



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Of the Great Insane
American Night
We sang
sending our gift
to its vast promise

Pilots are a problem
The rain & hungry sea
greedy for steel

Say a soft American Prayer
A quiet animal sigh
for the strong plane
landing

We rode on opium tires
from the colossal
airport chess game
at dawn, new from glass
in the broken night

landed then in quiet
fog, beside the times
out of this strange river

Then gladly thru
a wasted morning
happy to be alive to
signs of life
a dog,
a school girl
are we in Harlem?



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Blessings

accept this ancient
wisdom
which has travelled
far to greet
us
From the East
w/ the sun

Call out to him
From the mountain
high, from high
towers

as the mind
rebels
& wends its way
to freedom

grant us one more day
& hour
the hero of this dream
who heals & guides us

Forgive me, Blacks
you who unite
as I fear & gently
fall on darkness



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SCIENCE OF NIGHT

Earth Air Fire Water
Mother Father Sons & Daughters
Airplane in the starry night
First fright
Forest follow free
I love thee
watch how I love thee



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The Politics of ecstasy are real
Can't you feel them working
thru you
Turning night into day
Mixing sun w/ the sea.



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Ledger domain
Wilderness pain
cruel swimming ambience
sweet swimming fish hook smile
I love you all the while
even w/ the little child
by the hand
& squeeze

You're learning
fast

Keep off the walk
listen to the children talk



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Cobra sun / Fever smile
-No man kill me

"Who is this insane messenger?"

In times like these we need
men around us who can
see clearly & speak the truth.

Out of breath

   Raving witness

-Who comes?
-Asia



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CASSANDRA AT THE WELL

Help! Help! Save us!
Save us!
We're dying, fella, do something.
Get us out of this!
Save us!
I'm dying.
What have we done now!
We've done it, fella, we've committed the

Help!
This is the end of us, fella.
I love you fella.
I love you fells.
I love you cause you're you.

But you've got to help us.
What have we done, fella,
What have we done now?



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Where are my dreamers
Today & tonight
Where are my dancers
leaping madly
whirling & screaming

Where are my women
quietly dreaming
caught like angels
on the dark porch
of a velvet ranch
dance dance dance dance
         dance dance dance



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It was the greatest night of my life
Although I still had not found a wife
I had my friends right there beside me

Indians scattered on dawn's highway bleeding
Ghosts crown the young child's fragile eggshell mind

We scaled the wall
We tripped thru the graveyard
Ancient shapes were all around us
No music but the wet grass
felt fresh beside the fog

Two made love in a silent spot
one chased a rabbit into the dark
A girl got drunk & made the dead
And I gave empty sermons to my head

Cemetery cool & quiet
Hate to leave
your sacred lay
Dread the milky coming of the day



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In this full-throated
Sex'd cry
we must try again
to speak of the ununited
miles of sleep around
us
Bumbling thru slumber
Blind numbers

In a tiled room
We sit & brood
Refuse to move
The guards refuse

and in the last place
and in the last sweet breath
& in smoke of sine-wise crab

and in stars of plenty, stars of greed
in the written book & majesties
in fulfillment on a cliff
on the inside of butter
on smooth backs & camels
in the open vessel
in the vein
in lives untold
   who witnessed everything

For those people who died
for Nirvana
for the heavenly creed
for you, for me

These lines are written
   to convey the message
To ignore the warning
To spree upward into
Tantalizing voices
To visit under-seas
Believe
Things more horrible
            than war
Things out of the tales
Great beasts
Suffering extinction



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All these monsters
Words forsaken, falling
by all Hell
loose walls, forgotten
tumbling down into
Night / Fast friends
fellows of the one true cross
earthly lovers crash
sweet sorrow blackness
on the spilled roadside
down, into fire
silence, cry



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Argue w/ breath
nice
while I cry
Midnight!

it must come
like dream
sperm
uncalled
from the center
Borderlands
where liquor's
made
flow

it must come
unbidden
like the dawn
soft haste
No hurry
hairs curl

The phone
rings
We create the dawn



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I fell on the earth
           & raped the snow
I got married to life
           & breathed w/ my marrow
I saw young dancers
I am meat & need fuel
Need the whorey glimmer of tears
in women, all ages
Laughter sandwich, fuel
   for the lunch of meat minds
Now damn you, dance
Now dance
or die sleek & fat in your
reeking seats, still
buckled for flight



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If the writer can write, &
   the farmer can sow
Then all miracles concur,
   appear, & start happening
If the children eat, if there
   time of crying was Mid-
   Night

The earth needs them
soft dogs on the snow
Nestled in Spring
When sun makes wine
& blood dances dangerous
   in the veins or vine



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To have just come wondering
if the world is real is
sick to see the shape she's
made of.  What wandering
lunacy have we soft created?

Certain no one meant it
sure someone started
Where is he?
Where is he or it when
      we need her?
Where are you?
In a flower?

To have just been born
      for beauty & see sadness
What is this frail sickness?



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Round-up,  Roundolay,  Rhonda,
Red Rich roll ruse rune
rake roan ran regard
if you know what I mean.
This is concrete imagery Vermont
The mouth leads this way
I that way
No good faster the hand too slow
To exist in time we die construct
prisms in a void
The truth  faster  These hang-ups
hold-ups  shooting the republic
The president's dream behind
The throne
four-score fast fever the clinic
the wisdom syphilis doctor nurse
Indians  americans  Atlantis
Save us  guide us  in time of need
prayer to the mind cell body
prayer to center of man  prayer
to evening's last whisper  as the
hand silently glides into peaceful
thorns  stones  storms
I await your coming
w/ negligence  Speak to me!
don't leave me here alone  Torture
clinic chamber  The stale bars  his mother
who will help a match a cigarette
I'm going. God? What is your name

There must be some way to define
stop happening space shades
postures poses snapshots  The
World behind the word & all
utterance  Can't now
coming for us  soon leave  all over
The Republic is a big cross in a
big cross the nation  The world on fire
Taxi from Africa  The Grand Hotel
He was drunk  a big party last
night there. Pastures fields
skunks snake invisible night birds
night hawks  summer disasters
out of doors  listen to the lions
roar in the empty fields
These are forgotten
lands  Speak confidently of
the forest  the end  the joke
is on me  most certainly
There must be someone today who
knows  they do  but they can't
Tell you  like feeding a child
Wine  like sniffing cortex
blue babies lists  real estate
cleaning offices  word-vomit
mind soup  crawling lice  book bonds.

Feeling streams lead to losers
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
stinking boots.  Stories of animals
in the woods  not stupid  but
like indians peeping out  there
little eyes in the night  I know
the forest & the evil moon tide.
"we sure look funny don't we fella?"
Plu-perfect.  Forgotten.  Songs
are good streams for a laugh.
The mind bird was a good fella
Who minded labyrinths & lived
in a well  He knew Jesus
Knew Newman  Knew me &
Morganfield  I hope you can
understand these last parables
were hope (less) sure  if you can
regard them as anything beyond
matter  Surely not more than
Twice-fold folk follow & loose-
tree  Now here's the run  rune

Rib-bait squalor the women of the
quarter yawned & meandered
swimming dust tide for food
scraps to child feed  No noon
for misses  The Church called bells
inhabitants of the well  come to hell
come to the bell  funeral jive
Negroes plenty, fluttering their
dark smiles.  Mindless lepers -
con-men  The movie is popular
This season  in all the hotels
rich tourists from the continent
shore up & hold a story seance
nightly  The birds tell & they
Know all  Telephones crooks
& castanets  The lines are wired
Listen  hear those voices & all
This long distance from the other half
I love to hear ya ramble boy
missionary stallion  One day
The devil arrived only no one tell
or you'll ruin the outcome. He
walked to the pulpit & saved
The city while certainly scoring
Someone's female daughter.
When his cloak was hoisted
The snake was seen & we all
slipped back to lethargy.

Buildings glided no interruptions.

Constructions everywhere.  Our
own house was solid astrology
Tiny flutes won their starlings
sunrise.  And in the estuary
side-traps stopped our dinner
He came home w/ bags of meat
& sacks of flour & the bread
rose & the family flourished.



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Those who Race toward Death
Those who wait
Those who worry



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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.



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Fence my sacred fire
I want. To be simple, black & clean
A dim nothingness
Please
The sea is green
Smoke
like the child's version of a
Christmas dream
w/ no
waking.



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Why the desire for death.

A clean paper or pure
   white wall. One false
line, a scratch, a mistake.
Unerasable. So obscure
by adding million other
   tracings, blend it,
cover over.

But the original scratch
remains, written in
gold blood, shining.

Desire for a Perfect Life

__________________
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

I am a Scot, or so
I'm told. Really
the heir of Mystery
            Christians

Snake in the Glen

The child of a
   Military family...

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

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

History of Rock
   coinciding w/ my
               adolescence

Came to LA to
   Film School

Venice Summer

Drug Visions

Roof top songs

early struggles &
         humiliations

Thanks to the girls
who fed me.

Making Records

Elvis had sex-wise
mature voice at 19.

Mine still retains the
nasal whine of a
repressed adolescent
   minor squeaks & furies
An interesting singer
at best - a scream
or a sick croon. Nothing
in-between.


ROAD DAYS


fear of Plane death

And night was what Night
      should be
A girl, a bottle, & blessed sleep

I have ploughed
My seed thru the heart
of the nation.
   Injected a germ in the psychic blood vein.

Now I embrace the poetry
of business & become - for
a time - a "Prince of Industry"

A natural leader, a poet,
            a Shaman, w/ the
soul of a clown.

What am I doing
   in the Bull Ring
         Arena
Every public figure
   running for Leader

Spectators at the Tomb
-riot watchers

Fear of Eyes
Assassination

Being drunk is a good disguise.

I drink so I
can talk to assholes.
This includes me.

The horror of business

The Problem of Money
       guilt
   do I deserve it?

The Meeting
Rid of Managers & agents

After 4 yrs. I'm left w/ a
   mind like a fuzzy hammer

regret for wasted nights
   & wasted years
I pissed it all away
   American Music

End w/ fond good-bye
& plans for future
-Not an actor
   Writer-filmmaker

Which of my cellves
         will be remember'd

Good-bye America
   I loved you

         Money from home
         good luck
         stay out of trouble




All Writings By James Douglas Morrison