by Kyle K. Mann
Gonzo Today Contributing Editor and Publisher
To recap our previous Gonzo Today articles mentioning Mary Werbelow: Jim Morrison was rejected by and separated from his 3 year girlfriend Mary Werbelow in the late spring/early summer of 1965 in Los Angeles, California. The result, by way of Morrison’s lyric poetry regarding his extreme distress at being dumped by Werbelow, was the legendary rock band the Doors.
Mary Werbelow’s rejection was allegedly intended by her to be temporary. We know about this rejection from various books, and the only interview Mary Werbelow ever gave, to Robert Farley of the Tampa Bay Times, in 2005. It’s a fascinating read.
As for the books, the best in my view is by Werbelow and Morrison’s friend Bill Cosgrave, whose 2020 release “Jim Morrison, Mary and Me” describes the breakup with searing intensity.
It doesn’t get any more tragic than this. They still loved each other, but couldn’t be with each other.
Recently I became aware of another source: an abandoned 2013 journal of Mary Werbelow!
Numerous attempts have been made to contact Mary Werbelow directly regarding the journal. To date, she has not responded.
So what are we looking at in the Mary Werbelow journal?
It’s heavy stuff. Werbelow, then in her 60s and living in a North Hollywood trailer park, was in poor health. Her pen-written handwriting is difficult to read, and sometimes written so small that I’m forced to use a lighted magnifying glass to decipher it.
But the effect of actually reading her innermost emotions, when put in the context of rock music history, is jolting. Werbelow comes across as a fiery soul in torment, after decades of torture. Impossible for me not to experience horror, examining the material, including stories I’d never heard, some admittedly delightful. It’s apparent that after Jim Morrison shot to fame in the summer of 1967, that they stayed in close contact at first, until Werbelow traveled to India.
Werbelow writes with intensity, sometimes brief observations like “I write poetry that will break my heart.” Reading her handwritten material, one feels an intruder, yet simultaneously a rock historian. The Doors were a strange band at a strange time, and Jim Morrison’s development was influenced by Mary in their three years together, just as he influenced her.
I have chosen this lovely poem as a sample of the mind-bending material Werbelow was writing early in the 2010s, given the incredible and continued worldwide interest in the Doors and Jim Morrison, and the dawning realization that Mary Werbelow’s story is poorly understood and tragically under represented. So then, here is her untitled masterpiece of a poem. In my view, it is undoubtedly written to Jim Morrison, then dead for over 40 years. The meaning of much of it is open to interpretation.
Untitled Poem by Mary Werbelow
The colors of the sea
are blue
I forgot the colors of your eyes
We were together previously
Now you are back – so I ain’t blue
Cause I got the real
I didn’t steal it either
I see the white blossoms turning
to pink
I like to change it up while I’m
passing thru
the blind – see the sun light
It temporarily makes the world
flat without waves
I see the fires of the sun
It’s not made by men
Created by God thru infinite
Wisdom – that’s the end
Written 2013. Copyright 2022 Gonzo Today/Mary Werbelow
A note on this poem: The word “forgot” is either underlined or struck through. I lean towards underlined.
On the opposite page, we find this gem, as close as I can make out with the actual spelling and dashes as written:
He suffered from true love w/ a woman reborne. Jung knew to become one self. I took his side from innocence as a young boy. When I had real sexuality I had it as one in love. There is no other – way. People don’t understand – I never found it – again – my beat [?] blast. [beast?] Dogs ran wild in the beginning. Then I went insane. Flew away from jail to mo’ blues.
Written 2013. Copyright 2022 Gonzo Today/Mary Werbelow
*****
Mary, if you still are alive, let me address you directly. Again, we have repeatedly tried to contact you, via the phone number in your notebook, with no reply. We are acting in good faith. Please, if you can, respond to our texts or call 818-441-6027.
In any case, for myself and on behalf of millions of fans: thank you for inadvertently creating the Doors.
Kyle K. Mann
Topanga
June 2, 2022
