Writers Who Inspire Us: The Poetic Narratives of Patti Smith
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“Where does it all lead? What will become of us? These were our young questions, and young answers were revealed. It leads to each other. We become ourselves.”
Poet, playwright, musician, rock star and highly influential writer are all terms that can be used to describe the artist known as Patti Smith.
I first stumbled upon Patti Smith during my first few days of living in New York City. I found her novel ‘Just Kids’ listed under bestsellers in the New York Public Library bookstore. Upon reading the book I was taken instantly by her poetic narratives and thorough descriptions of each chapter of her life from her childhood in New Jersey to the world of 1970’s New York City where characters such as Allen Ginsburg and William S. Burroughs lingered on street corners.
Patti Smith’s artistic career began on the streets of New York City. She moved to Manhattan at the age of twenty and while working at a bookstore met a young man named Robert Mapplethorpe who soon became her close friend, lover and collaborator. These days of living as a young artist in the big city became her inspiration for ‘Just Kids’, the vast images of the iconic Strand Bookstore, where Smith worked as a sales clerk, nights trading pieces of art for shelter at the Chelsea Hotel and of course Mapplethorpe’s blossoming photography all come together to form Patti Smith’s love letter not just to her friend Robert Mapplethorpe, but to the city of New York itself.
Throughout her entire career Patti Smith has taken on many artistic roles. Beginning in the 1970’s she busked on the streets of Paris and Manhattan. It was also during this time that she began writing and performing poetry. Theatre was also a part of Smith’s life, she performed in plays and eventually collaborated with acclaimed playwright Sam Shepard on their piece ‘Cowboy Mouth’.
From the first chapter of ‘Just Kids’, I was immediately transfixed by the language of Patti Smith. Her prose details situations of poverty, illness and grief in such poetry that almost brings beauty into the descriptions of distressing situations. As a young artist living in New York myself, the world of New York City bohemia that she so expertly captures drew me in as I found myself wandering the streets she details in her book. As poetry lounges become high ceilinged lofts and Hell’s Kitchen dive bars shutter their doors, ‘Just Kids’ captures a New York that was disappearing, a New York that in many ways is now gone. Patti Smith’s love letter to New York City also stands as a time capsule into a city that once was a huge artistic society. As I continue to live in New York, I grow increasingly inspired to find shreds of that world that still exist today.
Furthermore, Smith’s later works include ‘M Train’ – a memoir that has been considered a sort of sequel to ‘Just Kids’ and ‘The Year of the Monkey’ – a book that stands as a reflection of the year 2016, the year Smith turned seventy. A passage that has stayed with me within her book ‘M Train’ is that of a story of Smith visiting the grave of Sylvia Plath. Smith’s lyrical account describes approaching Plath’s grave in the dead of English winter and leaving behind a spiral notebook, a purple ribbon and a single bee embroidered sock. This passage particularly struck me as it seemed to paint the image of two highly prominent writers meeting each other in a space between life and death, Patti Smith has often named Sylvia Plath as an important and influential figure in her life and art thus Smith’s pilgrimage to the grave of Sylvia Plath remains particularly a particularly strong image of the passing on of work and art through female writers.
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‘The Year of the Monkey’ also reflects upon major political changes during the year of 2016, including the election of Donald Trump into the White House. The section of the book that describes the night of the 2016 election has always stayed with me, as Patti Smith details how ‘twenty-four percent of the population had elected the worst of ourselves to represent the other seventy-six. All hail our American apathy. All hail the twisted wisdom of the Electoral College’. The next passage of the night features Patti Smith in a bar in Hell’s Kitchen taking a shot of vodka as Billie Holiday played softly on the radio.
Smith’s avid sharing of personal stories throughout her entire life brings her work into the genre of both memoir writing and confessional writing. Her language is poetry and her imagery is consistently strong and memorable. Her work pays tribute to important people throughout her life in a meaningful, beautiful way that immortalizes them in her poetic narratives. She is a rock goddess and poetess who has so gracefully encapsulated many moments of the past and present, highlighting and sharing her world with all of her readers.
` As a writer, Patti Smith has taught me fearlessness. She has taught me to seek beauty in dismal places and explore metaphor within syntax. Regarding the creation of art, she has spoken that “to be an artist is to enter into competition with god”. She is a highly influential and inspirational writer who has so generously invited all of us into her world, life and art.
Recommended Reading
Poetry
The Coral Sea
Auguries of Innocence
Collected Lyrics
Memoirs
Just Kids
M Train
Year of the Monkey
About Amelia Kennedy
Amelia Kennedy is a British born writer and actor based in Brooklyn, New York. She writes poetry and has had three short stories published in Literate Sunday. Amelia is currently working on her first novel entitled ‘Daughters of the Revolution’ - which will be completed this year. Her writing influences from feminist theories, punk music and Shakespeare sonnets. Find Amelia on Instagram @ameliakennedywritings
