Poetry and Prose

"I don't consider writing a quiet, closet act.
I consider it a real physical act.
When I'm home writing on the typewriter, I go crazy.
I move like a monkey.
I've wet myself, I've come in my pants writing."

                --Patti Smith

detailed bibliography

tables of contents w/ publication history

a 1980 trouser press photograph of a legal-pad scribbling of a poem, the text of which is displayed side by side with its final version as "true music" in Early Works 1970-1979

preface to monument by lynn davis -- ('99)

liner notes for peace and noise -- ('97)

Perfect Moon -- poem/song from Ivan Kral's Nostalgia album ('96). Note that the text is of the poem "december", p. 90, Early Work / 1970 - 1979, Copyright © Patti Smith 1994.

untitled -- poem from les nouvelles polyphonies corses' in paradisu album ('96)

on Artaud and Genet -- brief published remarks in association with June '96 Artaud-Genet conference in London.

mirza -- an extended version, in prose, of the poem "mirza" ('95)

introduction to Japanese edition of babel -- a letter from Patti to her Japanese readers ('94)

we can be heroes -- an article from Details ('93)

pain and ink -- a book review of Edmund White's Genet, with thoughts about Genet's influence (11/93)

february snow -- a prose piece about winter and departed friends (12/92)

shots in the dark -- memories of Robert Mapplethorpe (11/92)

Foreword (untitled) -- to Janet Hamill's Nostalgia of the Infinite ('92)

the meaning of life -- a short essay from a Life magazine anthology ('92)

poem about rimbaud -- from Hector Zazou's Sahara Blue album ('92); The poem itself, I believe, is circa 1971-75(?)

dedication -- dedication for book: Mapplethorpe's a perfect moment collection ('88)

american prayer (scream of the butterfly) -- review of Jim Morrison's American Prayer (1/79)

HERoes -- tale of trip to koln, along with review of David Bowie's Heroes (4/78)

où est baudelaire? -- short piece on the critic and the artist (5/77)

you can't say "fuck" in radio free america -- a manifesto against censorship (3/77)

on jeanne moreau -- comments on her love of jeanne moreau in the movie mademoiselle (1/77)

jukebox cruci-fix -- prose piece about departed heroes (6/75)

flying saucers rock 'n' roll -- prose piece about her experience of scarlet fever (6/75)

untitled -- review of Velvet Underground's 1969 live (9/74)

masked bawl -- review of dylan's planet waves (4/74)

star fever -- poem ('73) printed on large pink "band-aid" and enclosed in a Todd Rundgren album

jag-arr of the jungle -- Patti's fun comments on her enthusiasm for the Stones ('73)

todd's electric exploitation -- review of Todd Rundgren's A Wizard, A True Star (4/73)

Edgar Winter's After Dark -- album review (3/73)

a useless death -- poem ('72) originally published in chapbook format

3 poems from another world anthology -- "the famous easter act," "january 26," and "j.p." ('71)

ladies and gentleman / blaise cendrars is not dead -- another poem from an anthology ('71)

autobiography -- poem (9/71)

for sam shepard -- poem (9/71)

for bob neuwirth -- poem (9/71)

review of todd rundgren's runt lp -- the only time she wrote for rolling stone (8/71)

quotation from cowboy mouth -- the play she wrote with sam shepard ('71). The Play was Staged Feb '71, although it wasn't published until 1972.