Best known for his “Legend of Duluoz” novels, includingOn the RoadandThe Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac is also an important poet. In these eight extended poems, Kerouac writes from the heart of experience in the music of language, employing the same instrumental blues form that he used to fullest effect inMexico City Blues, his largely unheralded classic of postmodern literature. Edited by Kerouac himself,Book of Bluesis an exuberant foray into language and consciousness, rich with imagery, propelled by rythm, and based in a reverent attentiveness to the moment.