Lew Welsh

Lew Welsh was a contemporary of the "beat poets" of the 50's and early 60's, he shared a house with Gary Snyder and Philip Whalen while attending Reed College.

Along with Snyder, Whalen and other characters of the time he appeared in Jack Kerouac's novels. In Kerouac's novel Big Sur, he was the inspiration for the character Dave Wain

…that lean rangy red head Welchman with his penchant for going off in Willie to fish in the Rogue River up in Oregon where he knows an abandoned mining camp, or for blattin around the desert roads, for suddenly reappearing in town to get drunk, and a marvelous poet himself, has that certain something that young hip teenagers probably wanta imitate – For one thing is one of the world's best talkers, and funny too.

After college and attempting to make his living as a poet. (Which sadly is about as likely as making your living as a poet today.) He moved back east and worked in advertising.

There is some dispute, but he may have been the one who came up with the slogan "Raid kills bugs dead".

After a time he left advertising and moved back west to concentrate on his writing once again.

I don't think he ever got his due.

Here is one of my favorites

I Saw Myself

I saw myself

a ring of bone

in the clear stream

of all of it

and vowed

always to be open to it

that all of it

might flow through

and then heard

"ring of bone" where

ring is what a

bell does