Rare Dylan poems to be auctioned off

Before he was Bob Dylan, before he was even a serious songwriter, a Minnesota college student named Robert Zimmerman was an aspiring poet musing about cigarettes, motorcycles and lost love.

He wrote “Poems Without Titles” in 1960. It is a 16-page, hand-scrawled collection that features the future star trying out his soon-to-be pseudonym.

Most of the poems are signed “Dylan” or “Dylanism,” the earliest known use of his nom de tune, according to Christie’s auction house.

On Monday, the rare cache of Dylan poems goes on the auction block in Christie’s Rockefeller Center location, with an anticipated value of $60,000 to $80,000. It’s the top item in a rock and pop memorabilia auction that also features a medallion worn by Jimi Hendrix at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, rare lyrics written by Jim Morrison and an assortment of Beatles items.