Patti Smith

Hello everybody, I know this is a pretty rough video, kind of laconic and a lot of text message dinging, but too much perfection is never good for anyone. Below is my little presentation speech for Lily Gladstone. Daniel Day Lewis gave a very touching speech for Martin Scorsese for best director. I was happy to note he opened with quotes from Andrei Tarkovsky. I hope everyone is well. Please stren...

Hello everybody, I am sitting in my room working on my manuscript, but took a break to say hello. While I did the sun appeared from the clouds and lit up my room. I thought that a good sign. The little bit of snow we received this weekend has melted away, but not the brief happiness for having seen it. I am reading Poor Things and Sun and Steel. I’m excited to see the film and was happy that both...

Tonight at Brooklyn Steel we performed Masters of War by Bob Dylan for the first time. Considering the role that governments and corporations play in the perpetuation of wars it sadly is a fitting song for our time. It feels good to get back to work. I returned to the stage with some trepidation but my confidence, thanks to the support of the people, has returned. The video is courtesy of Janine B...

Hello Everyone, And so this is Christmas and I am sitting at my worktable considering the various meanings of the holiday, whether spiritual, traditional or commercial. The aspect of giving, which is symbolized by the Three Wise Men’s offerings to the infant Jesus, the aspect of hope, personified by the Christ child, the light of the world. There are varying traditions, ranging from acts of charit...

This morning I had coffee and a light breakfast, took a few pictures in the magnificent lobby, then got in the van to drive to Sienna. Last night we played in the Modena Duoma, a 12th century Romanesque cathedral. . Above is a snippet taken by Janine Bub, of a version of Beneath the Southern Cross dedicated to Shane MacGowan. Tomorrow I will give a Sienna report, the ancient captivating city of Si...

Today we have arrived in Modena. I am just saying hello and will be preparing a few little travelogues. I promised to tell you of Robert’s ring, so I am telling you now. Then I must go to soundcheck. I will send pictures of the Basilica, where we are performing, a bit later. Below is a picture of the very interesting curtains in my hotel room, and the few from my shuttered windows. So, I will see...

This morning we left Isernia and headed to Naples by van in the pouring rain. Our hotel overlooks the Bay of Naples that empties into the Mediterranean Sea. I love Naples and am always happy to return. Tonight our job is in a small church and we will be performing in honor of Maria Callas’s 100th birthday. She has always been a great source of inspiration. She was not thought to be a perfect singe...

Hello everyone We are in a van driving from the sea in Pescara to the mountains. I made a little video for you at the ocean I wasn’t certain that I could figure out how to send it while literally on the road but I did. I can’t write anymore as it’s making me carsick But here’s mountains from my window with all good wishes to all. This is a passage from The Waves, my favorite work by Virginia Woolf...

Tonight is the new moon, invisible to us yet somewhere hidden it exists, a lone and cratered silver disc. How sad our beloved moon must be at the state of our world, of man’s inhumanity to the mirror of himself. It suspends in darkness this night to mourn the children of the earth and will return to us, sliver by sliver. Below is a fragment to the moon by the poet Shelley. I have a concert tonight...

Here are two photographs I took recently in Charleville, his birth place. It is just as he would have seen it in early Spring. Also Arthur at sixteen and a translation of the poem. In the future I will scan them in the original French for those that wish it. Patti Smith is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is...

Today is the anniversary of Virginia Woolf’s passing day. A day she chose for herself. In remembrance here are words from The Waves. Below is a Polaroid of her cane, which was found by the River Ouse where she took her life. It is a simple yet sturdy cane, that no doubt had served her well. I am also including the song Elegy from the 1975 album Horses. A song I wrote in memory of artists and loved...

Happy first day of Spring. Here is a little poem by Emily Dickinson. She seems to be heralding then mourning the rare and precious light of spring itself. May we all look toward renewal, and find joy in the small things, a blade of grass, a chirping bird. A Light exists in SpringNot present on the YearAt any other period —When March is scarcely hereA Color stands abroadOn Solitary FieldsThat Scien...

Thank you everyone for your comments yesterday and welcome new subscribers… Here is the picture taken in Coney Island on September 1,1969. Notice Robert’s anniversary hat! Patti Smith is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access t...

Today I received in my inbox a missive from Poetic Outlaws, which I subscribe to. Everyday there is a poem or piece of writing from those I admire or those undiscovered. I didn’t know todays poet Julia Vinograd but I liked her poem. I am going to read it aloud and hope it will inspire you to seek her work out. Much gratitude to Poetic Outlaws for introducing an energetic work by a worthy poet. Tod...

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This is link to the cathedral website, with info on the live stream. People can watch it here or, I guess. on YouTube. https://www.stjohndivine.org/calendar/42468/celebration-of-the-life-of-joan-didion This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pattismith.substack.com/subscribe

I recorded my improv on this beautiful track by REM on the death of my great friend, the German artist, filmmaker, theatre director and political activist, Christoph Marie Schlingensief. He was a genius and a genie, only fifty years old. There is much to be said of him today, on his passing day. But I will let this track suffice, in remembering that boy of Berlin. This is a public episode. If you'...

. .. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pattismith.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pattismith.substack.com/subscribe

More pictures to come….. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pattismith.substack.com/subscribe

London Morning coffee.  Toast, olive oil, porridge and banana smoothie, side of beans, berries. Rehearsal went well.  We are the quartet configuration that is, in actuality as my son says: a power trio with a singer. With our sound and monitor techs Darrell and Pete. It’s a small set up and everyone takes two or three roles. Getting us from place to place Setting up their own equipment and taking...

27 May London It was that café.  The one with the faces of musicians tacked on the wall, home cooking sign in the window.  Black Swan was on from the album Nina Simone Live at Carnegie Hall.  I hadn’t heard it in a long time and it gave me a strange feeling; it took me way back to 1963, sixteen years old, holding that album in my hand and weeping to that song, conscious of  the miracle of Nina Sim...

I am about to leave on tour. Be on a plane on Bob’s birthday. Sending you our version of Drifter’s Escape, and escaping I am. To other parts to do my my part. All good wishes everybody. I will send messages from beyond. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pattismith.substack.com/subscribe

Elan that lifts me above the clouds into pure space, timeless, yea eternal Breath transmuted into words Transmuted back to breath in one hundred two hundred years nearly Immortal, Sappho's 26 centuries of cadenced breathing - beyond time, clocks, empires, bodies, cars, chariots, rocket ships skyscrapers, Nation empires brass walls, polished marble, Inca Artwork of the mind - but where's it come fr...

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pattismith.substack.com/subscribe