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Friday, February 10, 2012

peace & noise

People have the power! Toads, today we are trampin' with Patti Smith.

Patti Smith, American singer-songwriter, poet, and visual artist.



Patti Smith won the National Book Award for Just Kids, an incredible autobiography. Her book inspired me to write this poem, which barely scratches the surface of her great influence on me. Here is one of Patti's early poems:


the sheep lady from algiers
by Patti Smith 
nodding tho' the lamps lit low
nodding for passers underground
to and fro she's darning and
the yarn is weeping red and pale
marking the train stops from algiers

sleeping tho' the eyes are pale
hums in rhythum w/a bonnet on
lullaby a broken song
the sifting-cloth is bleeding red
weeping yarn from algiers

lullaby tho' baby's gone
the cradle rocks a barren song
she's rocking w/her ribbons on
she's rocking yarn and needles oh
it's long coming from algiers
I am lucky to get to see Patti Smith: Camera Solo this weekend. Whoa.

Why am I trying to do this, to give words to vision and beauty as epic as Patti Smith's? I give up. She can speak for herself.




Toads? Listen, look, read, write what comes. Can't wait to read what you write.

12 comments:

  1. good morning, Toads! i hope Patti Smith inspires.
    i wanted to let you all know that because of work, i'll be mostly offline from now until saturday afternoon. but i'll be back then to read what you've written and to post something of my own. happy friday!

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  2. Patti is ammazing and so is the above poem! thanks!

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  3. I haven't listened to Patti before. Thanks for posting this. Sounds great to me.

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  4. I can't help but feel I've left something out, Marian, but this is as good as I get on a Friday morning with a headache left over from yesterday yet.
    Great choice of artist for the musical prompt. I hope you get to talk to Patti, so you can tell the Toads about her.
    K

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  5. jennifaye has not written for this prompt, but linked a random poem... all very dubious.

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  6. I love Patti! Great idea for a prompt. Of course, I spent all morning listening to her music and reading her lyrics instead of writing myself!

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  7. So glad you found the info on the blog button useful! This was really a challenge. Loved learning about Patti.

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  8. Mine is up. Patti Smith always puts me right back to a certain time in my life.

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  9. Thanks for the prompt. It is always great to be inspired by music

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  10. yay! i'm so pleased to come home to a pile of poems here. off to read! i wrote mine on the train, seemed appropriate :)

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