THE LORDS AND THE NEW CREATURES: Poems

Jim Morrison, lead singer and composer for ""The Doors,"" gambols through indulgent ""Bitter grazing in sick pastures."" His characteristic fascination with incest, decay, death and dismemberment is all there; man retreats from reality into image, religion, alchemy, cinema (""Camera inside the coffin interviewing worms"" and ""A gray film melts off the eyes, and runs down the cheeks""). Morrison's New Creatures are atavistic--""Lizard woman,"" ""Jackal,"" ""Mating-Queen."" They are the natural enemies of the Lords whose ""Art adorns our prison walls/ keeps us silent and diverted/ and indifferent."" Provoking protest, subtle as a grenade, Morrison is equally sure of violent dislike or allegiance. When he's good, he can transform even the unrecognizable into the commonplace.