One of the most popular recent art additions in the Helm-Cravens Library is “Set the Night on Fire,” a tribute to Jim Morrison of the rock group, The Doors. Born James Douglas Morrison in Melbourne, Florida in 1943, Morrison was a singer-composer-poet whose band became an icon of the late 1960s with hits like “Light My Fire” which in 1967 became the number one song of the “summer of love.” After completing his seventh album, a documentary film, three collections of poetry and a screenplay Morrison was discovered dead in his Paris apartment on July 4, 1971. He’s buried at Paris’s Pere Lachaise cemetery near the graves of Moliere, Balzac, Edith Piaf, Chopin and Oscar Wilde. See Jerry Hopkins entry in American National Biography Online, a WKU e-book.
Poole is an award winning Kentucky artist who paints with watercolors, acrylics, oils, pastels and mixed media. His work has appeared in many state, regional and national exhibitions. He’s a signature member of the Louisiana and Kentucky Watercolor Societies and the International Society of Acrylic Painters. Tom was a huge fan of The Doors and Jim and viewed his death at 27 as a great tragedy. His poem below is used with permission:
Dance with the Shaman
Can’t you reach a little higher?
Take a trip to hide the pain
Don’t you know
Cocaine is just another chain?
Spin and swirl
Dance with the Shaman
You are approaching your tortured destruction
Death is doing His best seduction
Reach out…your friend is here but The End is coming
C’mon…break on through…Transcend!
Spin and swirl
Dance with the Shaman