Morrison Poetry Quotes

There are things known and there are things unknown and in between are the doors.

I like people who shake other people up and make them feel uncomfortable.

Listen, real poetry doesn't say anything; it just ticks off the possibilities. Opens all doors. You can walk through anyone that suits you.

If my poetry aims to achieve anything, it's to deliver people from the limited ways in which they see and feel.

No one thought up being. He who thinks he has, step forward.

Door of passage to the other side, the soul frees itself in stride.

She dances in a ring of fire and throws off the challenge with a shrug.

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.

I'll always be a word man, better than a bird man

She dances in a ring of fire and throws of the challenge with a shrug.

Gloria watched the swollen white orb of a hot-air balloon rising over Navy Pier and knew she had to break it off with Oliver, for he was the type who would never enjoy hot-air balloons, Van Morrison songs, or mess, whether from orgasm or otherwise. But who was she to be dreaming about mess today?

Look where we worship.

The talked about their messed-up, dysfunctional families, carefully respecting boundaries, never probing too deep in any one sitting. And they always ended up laughing. Even when the subject matter was intense or macabre, Henry’s sick and twisted and often politically incorrect sense of humor was infectious…Gloria laughed more in these first weeks at Oxford then she remembered laughing almost anywhere.

For they can picture love affairs of chemicals and stars...

He was seeking power and the use of power through knowledge of sin, of intoxication, of poetry

In reading poetry, we learn to read either in the light of timelessness or in the light of social justice or injustice as experienced by once generation.

The clown performs mute rites, as poetry always celebrates some willfully silenced voice.

I wanted to eat them like poetry. I wanted to bite women and spit fire.

Riders on the storm, riders on the storm Into this house we’re born Into this world we’re thrown Like a dog without a bone An actor out on loan Riders on the storm

The Dead Rock Star's Bar by Stewart Stafford I went for a drink in The Dead Rock Star's Bar, Phil Lynott was drinking whiskey in the jar, Jimi Hendrix was rocking the place, Elvis Presley was stuffing his face, Sid Vicious was grumpy and gruff, Freddie Mercury strutted his stuff, Marvin Gaye had plenty of soul, Lennon and Cobain compared bullet holes, Jim Morrison declared he was The Lizard King Buddy Holly sported an aeroplane wing, Such an array of talent leaves one's mouth agape, But they're all still alive on CD and tape, Wherever you live, you don't have to travel far, To have a damn good time at The Dead Rock Star's Bar. © Stewart Stafford, 1996. All rights reserved.

I want to remind us all that art is dangerous. I want to remind you of the history of artists who have been murdered, slaughtered, imprisoned, chopped up, refused entrance. The history of art, whether it's in music or written or what have you, has always been bloody, because dictators and people in office and people who want to control and deceive know exactly the people who will disturb their plans. And those people are artists. They're the ones that sing the truth. And that is something that society has got to protect. But when you enter that field, no matter whether that's Sonia's poetry or Ta-Nehisi's rather startlingly clear prose, it's a dangerous pursuit. Somebody's out to get you. You have to know it before you start, and do it under those circumstances, because it is one of the most important things that human beings do.

If you can give people a tool that then they can pass on, it can be more revolutionary and more likely to change people at the core than a rational discussion. Poems are fascinating bits of tools and bits of jewelry. They are fun, they are ornamental, but they also are essential. They are necessary and in some places desperately needed. To recognize this is cool, to be able to hand somebody a poem like you’d hand them a hammer or 20 bucks and say, “I hope this helps.” I think it is not only powerful but our responsibility as poets.

To be able to hand somebody a poem like you’d hand them a hammer or 20 bucks and say, 'I hope this helps' ...is not only powerful but our responsibility as poets.

Poetry isn’t one tool. It’s many tools.

He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.’ (§ 146) Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

There’s only two ways to make it in life, Rollins. Jim Morrison, or John Rockefeller.” “What?” “Life as art or life as project, woman. See, Rockefeller knew what he wanted from an early age. He built his life around it. He told himself that his life was going to be a certain way, and he planned the trajectory so it would go in that direction. Anything that didn’t add to his vision of that life, his project, he wouldn’t do. His family, his friends, his health, all of it came second to his project. “Morrison went the opposite way. He painted a canvas with his time—a beautiful painting of emotion, imagination, and poetry. Experience coming together to weave this tapestry of pleasure and pain. That’s it, sister. That’s all you got. Life as art or project. So you gotta choose. In my opinion, the best choice is the painting. Make life your painting.

Life as art or life as project, woman. See, Rockefeller knew what he wanted from an early age. He built his life around it. He told himself that his life was going to be a certain way, and he planned the trajectory so it would go in that direction. Anything that didn’t add to his vision of that life, his project, he wouldn’t do. His family, his friends, his health, all of it came second to his project. “Morrison went the opposite way. He painted a canvas with his time—a beautiful painting of emotion, imagination, and poetry. Experience coming together to weave this tapestry of pleasure and pain. That’s it, sister. That’s all you got. Life as art or project. So you gotta choose. In my opinion, the best choice is the painting. Make life your painting.

A pile of books on the bedside table—exactly the books a smart but pretentious teenage boy would own: Nietzsche, Kerouac, Bukowski, Jim Morrison’s poetry.

Better than Medicine   A glass of bitter beer or pale ale, taken with the principal meal of the day, does more good, and less harm, than any medicine the physician can prescribe.   Dr Carpenter in The Scottish Review, (1750)