Dear Patti, Thank you for your visit. Thank you also for the woolgatherers reading. I loved the book. I also like to re-read books. Sometimes when doing so, I realize that I have missed certain things. Take care. XO.
Reading The New Jerusalem and Watching your performance of some of it along with The People Have the Power — Thinking - here and now on the brink of All Souls, All Saints, and the world’s fragile democracy - Thinking about its weight dangling on a golden thread of Election Day.
Thank you so so much.. I love your talks here and I know about trying to say goodbye and I often do the same thing! Been a surreal time.. my partner is dealing to cancer ., the daylight grows shorter each day as we transition to November.. I am trying to keep thoughts to Love and Compassion as we go forward to elections to determine who will be in charge ., to guide us.. support us.. and leadership to exemplify principles and morals we would want our children to understand and model..So.. thank you!❤️❤️😘💫
Hi Patti. Im writing this a couple of days later. I wanted to say I read the very nice review of your Woolgathering event, I think it was in the NYTimes, and it sounded so wonderful and made me wish I had been there! Also, I can relate very much to your talking about not remembering what certain beloved books were about! There are so many books I absolutely loved when I was a teenager, all the Camus books, all the Hermann Hesse. I was enthralled by the Glass Bead Game and now I have no idea what it was about! I guess the value is in the reading and experiencing it at the time. I know that ideas from it are probably stuck somewhere in my brain; they say you just can't remember everything you ever saw or read because there needs to be room for the new stuff. Its like filling up a hard drive. I guess thats why enjoying the moment is so important. Life is a series of moments to enjoy and you cant always hold onto them. I always say that this is probably why I am a photographer, its because it allows you to hold on to moments. Of course you cant photograph a thought. so there it is. Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to do this substack. I really enjoy it.
The amount of joy I feel every time I see in my inbox a message from my admired personal friend: the legendary Patti Smith; the thrill of reading the subject for this most recent mail. These are the truly priceless things in life.
Thank you so much for existing, dear Patti. For being unapologetically you for so many decades and for telling the story so people like me felt less alone in our artistic and existential journeys. Thank you so very much for writing Just Kids for us, for me. It truly changed my life. Thanks for this catching up.
Lucky people in NY who get to see this production of "Woolgathering". I like to reread books too; this Summer I've reread "To the Lighthouse" and loved it even more.
p.s. It would be wonderful for Patti to cover "Who Knows Where The Time Goes?". :-)
Yes! In the summers of my adolescence I went to this old fishermen's house from the 1700s, where there would only be one book for YA, and each and every summer I would dive in the fictional universe and re-read the 500 pages, in which I would stay up late at night to indulge in dimmed lights just to know what happened next!
Thanks as always for sharing, Patti. It seems like I've spent most of my adult life woolgathering--still working out what to do with all this wool I've gathered. I spin out a bit of yarn and weave a little something now and again, thankfully. Your poem was received joyfully and with gratitude; I hope I can find your book sometime. (I'm still hoping to come across Bolano and have added Erneaux to my list, as well--my wife has been reading her work in Mandarin.) I think I can relate to Berhard's "The Loser"; coming face to face with genius can be exhilerating, terrifying, and alter one's sense of place in the world, especially if one seeks to exist in that place that genius is found.
And was that a subtle nod to Sandy Denny, "Who knows where the time goes"? ... she was something else. Her work with Fotheringay, for example ... "Banks of the Nile" is hauntingly beautiful.
There I go woolgathering again! All the best to you, Patti, and to all.
Patti, I am overjoyed that you mentioned the 5 Little Peppers and How They Grew! My mom read that book to me and my siblings when we were oh so small. She made a cloth book cover for her copy because it was worn; such a soft and delicate tome. We would gather on the bed and she'd read us a chapter per sitting, we were truly captivated and always begged for one more page...
You inspire me to read more - I write a lot but it’s hard for me to find time to read. I love books too. 5 Little Peppers sounds familiar- I got so absorbed in Watership Down as a child I could barely come up for air.
Two great beauties. What a lovely photograph.
Living the dream Patti - the dream of life. xo
Giving M Train a second read. Besides enjoying it, I've gained more food for thought this time around.
I love you. Your words and voice are such a comfort. You resonate kindness and good will. Thank you
Dear Patti, Thank you for your visit. Thank you also for the woolgatherers reading. I loved the book. I also like to re-read books. Sometimes when doing so, I realize that I have missed certain things. Take care. XO.
Reading The New Jerusalem and Watching your performance of some of it along with The People Have the Power — Thinking - here and now on the brink of All Souls, All Saints, and the world’s fragile democracy - Thinking about its weight dangling on a golden thread of Election Day.
Thank you so so much.. I love your talks here and I know about trying to say goodbye and I often do the same thing! Been a surreal time.. my partner is dealing to cancer ., the daylight grows shorter each day as we transition to November.. I am trying to keep thoughts to Love and Compassion as we go forward to elections to determine who will be in charge ., to guide us.. support us.. and leadership to exemplify principles and morals we would want our children to understand and model..So.. thank you!❤️❤️😘💫
You always look beautiful Patti. I think I will reread Woolgathering 💛
Thanks, Patti. Long live Harry; I would know him anywhere.
Hi Patti. Im writing this a couple of days later. I wanted to say I read the very nice review of your Woolgathering event, I think it was in the NYTimes, and it sounded so wonderful and made me wish I had been there! Also, I can relate very much to your talking about not remembering what certain beloved books were about! There are so many books I absolutely loved when I was a teenager, all the Camus books, all the Hermann Hesse. I was enthralled by the Glass Bead Game and now I have no idea what it was about! I guess the value is in the reading and experiencing it at the time. I know that ideas from it are probably stuck somewhere in my brain; they say you just can't remember everything you ever saw or read because there needs to be room for the new stuff. Its like filling up a hard drive. I guess thats why enjoying the moment is so important. Life is a series of moments to enjoy and you cant always hold onto them. I always say that this is probably why I am a photographer, its because it allows you to hold on to moments. Of course you cant photograph a thought. so there it is. Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to do this substack. I really enjoy it.
The amount of joy I feel every time I see in my inbox a message from my admired personal friend: the legendary Patti Smith; the thrill of reading the subject for this most recent mail. These are the truly priceless things in life.
Thank you so much for existing, dear Patti. For being unapologetically you for so many decades and for telling the story so people like me felt less alone in our artistic and existential journeys. Thank you so very much for writing Just Kids for us, for me. It truly changed my life. Thanks for this catching up.
Love,
Adriana
Lucky people in NY who get to see this production of "Woolgathering". I like to reread books too; this Summer I've reread "To the Lighthouse" and loved it even more.
p.s. It would be wonderful for Patti to cover "Who Knows Where The Time Goes?". :-)
Yes! In the summers of my adolescence I went to this old fishermen's house from the 1700s, where there would only be one book for YA, and each and every summer I would dive in the fictional universe and re-read the 500 pages, in which I would stay up late at night to indulge in dimmed lights just to know what happened next!
Thanks as always for sharing, Patti. It seems like I've spent most of my adult life woolgathering--still working out what to do with all this wool I've gathered. I spin out a bit of yarn and weave a little something now and again, thankfully. Your poem was received joyfully and with gratitude; I hope I can find your book sometime. (I'm still hoping to come across Bolano and have added Erneaux to my list, as well--my wife has been reading her work in Mandarin.) I think I can relate to Berhard's "The Loser"; coming face to face with genius can be exhilerating, terrifying, and alter one's sense of place in the world, especially if one seeks to exist in that place that genius is found.
And was that a subtle nod to Sandy Denny, "Who knows where the time goes"? ... she was something else. Her work with Fotheringay, for example ... "Banks of the Nile" is hauntingly beautiful.
There I go woolgathering again! All the best to you, Patti, and to all.
Patti, I am overjoyed that you mentioned the 5 Little Peppers and How They Grew! My mom read that book to me and my siblings when we were oh so small. She made a cloth book cover for her copy because it was worn; such a soft and delicate tome. We would gather on the bed and she'd read us a chapter per sitting, we were truly captivated and always begged for one more page...
And I cannot remember any of it! Ha!
So I relate to your tale of a wispy memory.
You inspire me to read more - I write a lot but it’s hard for me to find time to read. I love books too. 5 Little Peppers sounds familiar- I got so absorbed in Watership Down as a child I could barely come up for air.