Point of View

Jim Morrison writes his poetry in the first person, intending to give voice to the way his mind sees the world when he drinks. He explains in one of his poems that he drinks, in fact, in order that he can write poetry. He believes as he writes that it is necessary to torment the body into allowing the mind to shed everything that is not true, and what is left will be real and universal, and worth passing down. He also believes that poetry and songs are the only real vehicles for preserving and passing down a culture, since movies and physical art cannot be contained in a human mind, but poems can be perfectly remembered and recounted in their integral whole. He writes from the very particular point of view of a performing artist, as well, describing the world as it changes from place...