Lew Welch – “Not yet 40, my beard is already white”

August 2, 2008 at 6:38 pm (Poetry & Literature, The Beats)

One of the more obscure poets of the Beat-world. He was a drinking buddy of Jack Kerouac’s and a step-father to the future Huey Lewis (no kidding). He disappeared into the California mountains in 1971 and his body was never found. A suicide note was left behind. Not sure when this was written…but I’m assuming the early 60s…

Not yet 40, my beard is already white
Not yet awake, my eyes are puffy and red,
like a child who has cried too much

What is more disagreeable
than last night’s wine?

I’ll shave
I’ll stick my head in the cold spring and
look around at the pebbles
Maybe I can eat a can of peaches

Then I can finish the rest of the wine,
write poems ’til I’m drunk again,
and when the afternoon breeze comes up

I’ll sleep until I see the moon
and the dark trees
and the nibbling deer

and hear
the quarreling coons.