0:00
/
0:56

Greetings from Rockaway Beach

My foot, the ocean, just saying hello

I love the sound of the sea so I couldn’t resist sending it to you. With a poem of Rimbaud called Marine or Seascape translated by Francis Golffing. It is from the book Illuminations, that includes his last known poems. I had to send this via phone, a new task for me, so it’s a bit piecemeal. In any event, a wave from the ocean.

MARINE 

Marine 

The chariots of silver and copper. 

The prows of steel and silver 
Beat foam 

And lift up the stumps of the bramble. 

The currents of the heath 

And the immense ruts delved by their reflux 

Veer in a circle to the east, 

Toward the pillars of the forest, 

Toward the piles of the jetty, 

Whose angle is struck by the whirlwinds of light. 


FRANCIS GOLFFING 
And off I go..

Patti Smith is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Discussion about this video

Happy Mothers day 💓

Expand full comment

A beautiful moment of the sea. Poignant with a little gem of sound

Expand full comment

Ah, that’s so beautiful. The sound, the sand, the sky, the colours.. love the sea! You can almost smell it.

Expand full comment

My favorite thing is to listen the voice of ocean, sometimes it’s quite sometimes it’s super powerful

Expand full comment

So that’s why it’s called ROCKaway beach😂

Terrific poem and the Sea sounds different from mine. Can it be? I’m just down the coast a bit.

Expand full comment

I was dreaming of our Mother, the ocean, just this morning. Living too far from the water, I had to feel the sound and pulse in my mind only. And now, this just appeared in my inbox. Synchronicity. Cheers, mate, and happy mother's day to you and yours.

Expand full comment

Back in Rockaway Beach, through your film and the sound of the untapped perpetual motion of the sea. That gray morning walk in the damp cool sand, and the rock jetties. It is so silent and so unexpected at the edge of the busy borough of Queens. I was there for a few minute again in your video, and you brought me right back to my young years and getting into a convertible with friends, driving along Crossbay Boulevard to the bridge, hooting at strangers along the way. Or the Saturdays when I would put my toddler son into my old Borgward Isabella and ride to the beach. Sometimes Rockaway (44th Street) or to Riis Park, and sometimes to Long Beach (sneaking in before the official opening, because I did not have a resident's pass). The sea is the same body all over the world, it is astounding to me that, like the air we breath, the ocean is filled with the same water that has been on this earth for millions of years. All brought back to me by your generous sharing. It is so good to grow old with so many many memories, and no regrets for all of the good and all of the wrong and the mistakes and pleasures. Peace to you and to Cairo........

Expand full comment

rockaway beach is my happy place as well patti...what a joy to jump on the A train and end up at the ocean ❤️

Expand full comment

🌊 🦶

Expand full comment

Each wave is momentary and eternal. Forgotten and somehow engraved in the universe.

We are waves, momentary and eternal, passing through and one day forgotten, somehow engraved on the universe.

Expand full comment

Happy Mother’s Day. Thank you for all the gifts you bestow upon us.

Expand full comment

I live on the shores of Lake Ontario, in Canada. I like to say on a clear day you can see Rochester (NY). Not really true. After 30 years living by a huge body of water, I don't think I could not live by water again. The sound of the gulls and the water, it really brings you into communion with our beautiful planet.

Expand full comment

Happy Mother's Day, Patti!

Expand full comment

Happy Mother's Day to you Patti and to everyone that mothers others, hats off to you all x

Expand full comment

Thank you, Patti!

Expand full comment

Patti, what do you think about the movie "Total Eclipse"? Did you see it?

Expand full comment

Happy Mother's Day Sweet Patti! ❤

Expand full comment

A wave hello to you too! ❤🌊

Expand full comment

Happy Mother’s Day Patti. Thank you for all the nurturing posts, always always what the doctor ordered.

Expand full comment

Beautiful, thanks for sharing Patti

Expand full comment

'Ocean, I have loved thee / ... '

Thanks again, Patti!

Expand full comment

Thank you. Water language is Spirit balm.

Expand full comment

Love this Thank You. 😊

Expand full comment

It looked like the perfect day for beach walking and soaking up the beautiful sound of waves, thank you for sharing it with us! I just visited Lake Ontario on Tuesday and enjoyed myself very much, the lake was very restless, and the tide was high, so not much beach to walk on that day, it was still lovely. Happy Mother's Day, Patti! (My son is taking me to the greenhouse today to buy plants.)

Expand full comment

So nice to see you walking at the shoreline! I plan to do that myself tomorrow. Thank you for the beautiful poem. And Happy Mother’s Day, Patti! Our children are our treasures. I have one, my precious daughter. 💜

And Happy Mother’s Day to all in this lovely Patti community!

Expand full comment

"Rock rock Rockaway beach ","Here by the sea and sand "Happy Mother's Day Patti !

Expand full comment

Breaking waves and trickling streams, two of my very favorite natural sounds. Looks like a lovely day at Rockaway Beach. Happy Mother's Day to you.

Expand full comment

Happy Mother’s Day!🙏🏽💛📚🌷

Expand full comment

oh, thank you for sharing this moment! And the poem as well ... a short intense moment hearing, feeling the sea, giving us everything we need. Though I am not at the sea now, I will hear it and feel it all day today ...

Expand full comment

This is so beautiful. Thank you, Patti. The poem is exquisite. It’s “Marine” but it takes one from sea foam to stumps of bramble, the forest, the jetty, finally light. The propulsive power alone of the poem is astonishing.

The images are all beautiful. My favorite thing is in the last photo, how pink the soles of your feet are.

Expand full comment

Thank you for showing your ocean moments the beautiful poem and your well travelled perfect foot ! ‘Wave’ comes to mind ! 🦶🌊

Expand full comment

“The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears and the sea” - Isak Dinesen

Expand full comment

Life be good

Expand full comment

Je comprends que vous soyez tombée amoureuse de cet endroit. C’est magnifiquement reposant 🌊

Expand full comment

So beautiful, inspired Patti!

Expand full comment

The best thing to wake up to. Thank you Patti ♥

Expand full comment

Comme je descendais des Fleuves impassibles,

Je ne me sentis plus guidé par les haleurs :

Des Peaux-Rouges criards les avaient pris pour cibles

Les ayant cloués nus aux poteaux de couleurs.

J'étais insoucieux de tous les équipages,

Porteur de blés flamands ou de cotons anglais.

Quand avec mes haleurs ont fini ces tapages

Les Fleuves m'ont laissé descendre où je voulais.

Dans les clapotements furieux des marées

Moi l'autre hiver plus sourd que les cerveaux d'enfants,

Je courus ! Et les Péninsules démarrées

N'ont pas subi tohu-bohus plus triomphants.

La tempête a béni mes éveils maritimes.

Plus léger qu'un bouchon j'ai dansé sur les flots

Qu'on appelle rouleurs éternels de victimes,

Dix nuits, sans regretter l'œil niais des falots !

[...]

Expand full comment

How lovely!

I'm French but I didn't remember this poem, I had to go look it up in French.

In case there are other French people here:

Marine

Les chars d’argent et de cuivre –

Les proues d’acier et d’argent –

Battent l’écume, –

Soulèvent les souches des ronces.

Les courants de la lande,

Et les ornières immenses du reflux,

Filent circulairement vers l’est,

Vers les piliers de la forêt, –

Vers les fûts de la jetée,

Dont l’angle est heurté par des tourbillons de lumière.

Arthur Rimbaud, Illuminations

Expand full comment

Reminds me of the very end of your track with sounds of ocean where you say goodbye goodbye.

Expand full comment

Thanks for that, Patti. For a few virtual minutes by the sea. The low ceiling of clouds/fog(?) deepened

the intensity of the sound of the Atlantic coming ashore. Grey, chilly, perfect. And the poem added

another lovely layer.

Happy Mother's Day Patti and all moms.

Expand full comment

🎈So very strange to receive your video of the water sloshing over the sand - and your mother day wishes . . .

🎈When I received your message today I was sitting along the shore-line of Portland, Maine, listening to the incoming tidal waters and reflecting on how lucky and happy I am to still be alive - at 82 - and wondering what my mother - she died at the age of 39 in hospital the day after my birth on November 30th, 1940 - might have to say to me about how I a

living my life - I hope she might be proud of of me and my daughters and appreciate the artworks I have created . .

🎈I am in Portland, Maine for two days to attend and celebrate a close friend's son's wedding. It was a beautify and fun time here - bringing back memories, high hopes and the joy and apprehension I experienced during my own nuptials.

🎈Sitting at the shore today I felt blessed, at peace, and thankful for the time I have lived, even the pain and emotional hardships I have survived, and I felt grateful for whatever time I have left on this planet- hopefully for many more relatively healthy and happy years; I am confident yet pleased not knowing what will come next.

🎈Yesterday I purchased a cloth rat - I posted his picture on Facebook this evening - to bring back to my Newtonville, MA art studio - hopefully my furry stuffed black panther - who has slept with me since my divorce 30+ years ago - will not mind me having an additional sleeping-mate.

Expand full comment

I love the poem and the sound of the surging sea ,so comforting and hypnotic, although so powerful and overwhelming at times. The colour of the sea looks quite cold today Patti, sending you warm wishes and love, thanks for sharing your life.

Expand full comment

Lovely poem.

Rockaway Beach on the East Coast may have a Green Flash on a July/August morning if you can catch the sunrise, as in Éric Rohmer's The Green Ray (1986) or the poet Paul Valéry's poem Idée Fixe, "Green Flash"

A walk on the beach is good for your health.

Expand full comment

A wave from the ocean . . . love it! There is nothing quite like the sight and sound of crashing waves, and Rimbaud's poem is the perfect complement. Great pictures, too! You did a masterful job of sending this using your phone. Thanks so much for thinking of us, Patti, and sharing your day at the beach.

Expand full comment

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and personal reveries. The water was cold but I was so happy to step a bit in the sea today. Blessings on all mothers, each others, our own.

Expand full comment

Thank you, Patti, you rock

Expand full comment

Having not heard the sea in too many years I thank you. As a land lubbed water child I thank you. The ocean is our beloved souls set free.

Expand full comment

Here is a poem I just wrote inspired by the sounds and the spirit of the sea.

~°•~°•~°•~°•~°•~°~•°~°•~°•~°•~°•~°•~°•~°•~°•~

FEAR IS A FOE

Never be afraid to pass go

Never be afraid to rock the boat

Never be afraid to color outside the lines

Never be afraid to speak your mind

Never allow fear to steal your time

Never be afraid to raise your voice

Never allow anyone to convince you it's noise

Never be afraid to show your soul

Never be afraid for fear is a foe

Expand full comment

It looks better when translated to French. I'm sure the meaning and meter get lost.

Rimbaud inspires me to learn French in hopes that someday I'll be able to pen a poème.

LA PEUR EST UN ENNEMI

N'ayez jamais peur de passer aller

N'ayez jamais peur de secouer le bateau

N'ayez jamais peur de colorier en dehors des lignes

N'ayez jamais peur de dire ce que vous pensez

Ne laissez jamais la peur vous voler votre temps

N'ayez jamais peur d'élever la voix

Ne laissez jamais personne vous convaincre que c'est du bruit

N'ayez jamais peur de montrer votre âme

N'ayez jamais peur car la peur est un ennemi

Expand full comment

I'm going to copy this and frame it for my 2 year old grandson, who is just learning french from me. I've been speaking French with him since he was born. He loves the Sonore children's book of Erik Satie and I play it for him on the piano as well. He will know France one day. It is my 2nd home. https://www.amazon.com/d%C3%A9couvre-Satie-petit-sonore-French/dp/227810022X

Expand full comment

I am touched you enjoy the poème. It must be so wonderful to hold conversations in French with your grandson. Music and language is a beautiful bond.

Expand full comment

Thank you so much Zeny. I do wish I knew French but this type of exposure is so helpful. Your poeme is delightful 🥰

Expand full comment

merci beaucoup 😊

Expand full comment

So nice to hear and see the ocean waves and the poem.

Expand full comment

A dear friend grew up in Far Rockaway, so when I read about your beach bungalow of course I remember him, sadly gone from us years ago, back when 'gay pneumonia' was sweeping through San Francisco, and was a death sentence, often within a week. I think about him being young and beautiful forever, while I'm... not.

Expand full comment

Thank you! Beautiful poem and the sound of the waves soothe the soul—at any time.

Expand full comment

I always loved the scene from

The Ghost and Mrs Muir, and the washed up old bollard with Anna Muir carved into it, just a beautiful scene.

Happy Mother’s Day, I think it is tomorrow there, but here in Australia today.

Expand full comment

That is one of my favorite movies!!!! Thank you.

Expand full comment

Mine too, the music is divine!

Expand full comment

Greetings!

Expand full comment

Patti, thanks for sharing the beauty of the sounds, the images, and the words today!

Expand full comment

Excellent.

The metronome of the world.

Expand full comment

Wonderful, both took me right there, thanks Patti!!

Expand full comment

Well now my feet are jealous so I had to have a talk with them to explain we are in the desert and they must be patient for our trip to Big Sur for seaside solitude.

For the time being I'll be taking my feet to the mountain stream.

Enjoy your waves of sea and sunshine and music

💃

Expand full comment

Oh yes! The feel of wading in the ocean, cold water and sand squelching around the toes!

Expand full comment

squelching! Just the word I was searching for.

Expand full comment

Thank you for such a beautiful pairing of Rimbaud and the ocean. And pairing of the sound of the ocean with the visual of water on foot! Such a lovely sensory experience. i listened to these beautiful sounds in stereo as I am sitting in my little house by the sea with windows open.

Expand full comment

The piles of the jetty!

Expand full comment

Reminded me of Hiroshi Sugimotos Seascapes- beautiful sea.

Expand full comment

Off you go - thank you 🙏🏻

Expand full comment

Wonderful video, poem and a beautiful photo of you walking. Thank you for a special pre-Mother’s Day gift. You are the best

Expand full comment

Oh, Patti, what sweet memories your video elicited. I grew up in Rockaway Beach, on Beach 66 St in Arverne. Those jetties are one of a kind!

Expand full comment

Soothing sounds of the sea with poem of the sea after a day of house cleaning and gardening was perfect. How did you know. You always know the right thing to share at the right time. Thank you big sister of the sea. Have a pleasant night. May you have dreams of the sea tonight

Expand full comment

Thank you for this little reminder of the sea from Rockaway, Patti. "We can hitch a ride..." I'm landlocked, and it's been raining hard all night and all morning, but the sun has just come out in two ways: here in the spring sky, and here with a Rimbaud poem from you.

Expand full comment

Love that boardwalk along your stretch of paradise ; it fills up all your senses there . Mahalo for sharing 🌺

Expand full comment

Thank you, dear Patti, for this. ❤️🌀❤️

Expand full comment

I needed this today. Feeling a bit under today.

Expand full comment

I’m sorry, Charles. Sending you good energy.

Expand full comment

Beautiful. Simply so.

Expand full comment

Thank you. I needed to hear that sound. To read that poem.

Expand full comment

When I was a teenager, I would take my notebook down to the bottom of 10th Street in my Toronto suburb, and sit for hours on the rocks that seemed to rise out of Lake Ontario, watching the waves break against the stone and be transported, by the rhythmic sound of the tide, to worlds that only existed in my mind. Your video today brought that back to me. I was feeling a little out of sorts and I needed that. What a beautiful, beautiful place. And thanks for the Rimbaud. I feel like getting lost in those 'whirlwinds of light'.

Expand full comment

Beautiful memories Jim. Thank you for sharing💗👍

Expand full comment

Thanks, Maree. I enjoyed your description of the surfers riding their white, foam horses. Take care.

Expand full comment
Comment deleted
May 14, 2023
Comment deleted
Expand full comment

The Scarborough Bluffs! That seemed a world away in those days. I was on the opposite side of the city in what was then New Toronto and is now southern Etobicoke. My spot was just a pile of rocks really. But I was lucky. I could walk down. Only a couple of miles. Take good care.

Expand full comment

That is so beautiful, Patti - you and Rimbaud describe the beach as I have always loved it - although my only beaches have been in Florida.

Expand full comment

I feel the presence of God when I’m walking on a beach next to the ocean.

Expand full comment

Greetings from South Jersey, looking and sounding much the same way. Just perfect.

Expand full comment

I am sitting by a lake with little, lapping waves. Thank you for the fuller, gorgeous ocean sound. We are drinking almond tea from Morocco right now and reading Paul Bowles. I hope you sleep tonight to the sound of the waves! Blessings for sea-sleep and deep dreams.

Expand full comment

Beautiful! Thank you Patti for sharing this moment..

Expand full comment

Thank you for this 🙏 is it cold?

Expand full comment

I’m standing at my local beach this morning also listening to the relentless and today gentle sounds of the sea here. Some riders have gathered further south of me to catch their cresting white foam horses riding them for the thrill and the fun of it

Expand full comment

Thank you Patti, for the ocean and the poetry.

Expand full comment

Awesome. Literally.

Expand full comment

How calming. I too love the sound of the ocean. I sometimes listen to ocean sounds to go to sleep. Thanks Patti.

Expand full comment

Your foot, the ocean, the waves, huge rock formations, the sound of rolling waves, Rimbaud's words - some of God's greatest works of art...

Expand full comment

Say hi to Patti H for me!!

Expand full comment

Thank you for the poem and for sharing a short clip of the ocean and its soothing sound. It's amazing how something as simple as the sound of waves crashing can evoke tranquility and peace. Enjoy the day at Rockaway beach!

Expand full comment

So soothing- the sound and images blending together perfectly. Thanks for posting and enjoy your day.

Expand full comment

So. Incredibly. Sooooothing

Expand full comment

and the jetty. i grew up on the south shore and my parents and us kids spent our summers either in Atlantic Beach or Long Beach. My paternal grandparents lived on the boardwalk in Belle Harbor. the jettys, the boardwalk, the sand, the ocean .... memories

Expand full comment

Oy! When they say "Rockaway" beach they're not kiddin. Those are some big ass rocks. Thanks for the poem and the sound of the waves.

Expand full comment

Oh wow, now I get why it is named Rockaway beach. Thanks for the sound of the waves, at the same tempo as relaxed breathing, and thanks for the Rimbaud.

Expand full comment

Lake Ontario is like an ocean to me. It’s waves can be high. The sound soothes as it permeates my being into my soul. I don’t always get to the shore but when I do it’s medicine. Today that medicine came from you, Patti. Thank you.

Expand full comment

It's always a joy to see you inspired by nature!🙂

Expand full comment

How well the "steel and silver" in the poem resonated with your footage. I, too, filmed the sea yesterday which, where I placed my foot, was giddy in its sparkling blue tumult. Xx

Expand full comment

Thank you Patti. Great to see you at Rockaway beach. I wondered how things were going at Rockaway beach and your Alamo after the destruction of hurricane Sandy.

Expand full comment

Heeelloooo:))) Beautiful🌊 Thank you!!

Expand full comment

The sound of the ocean is my favorite sound. When I was in Mexico I had a place next to the ocean and that is the sound I hear the entire night. Thanks for that. Thanks for the poem as well! Enjoy the rest of your evening. It’s 82 degrees today and I’m headed to my poetry reading as I speak (or type)

Expand full comment

I hope it was wonderful!

Expand full comment

Be sure to let us know all about it. What an exciting time !

Expand full comment

I sure will! Thanks, Jim

Expand full comment

The sound of the ocean is really one of the most beautiful things! Thanks for posting 🙏🏻!

Expand full comment

🌻❤️

Expand full comment
Comment deleted
May 14, 2023
Comment deleted
Expand full comment

Thank you. Lisa, my black beautiy passed at 23, my boy the golden Mick Jagger is 10 and still very much here. 🌻❤️

Expand full comment
Comment deleted
May 14, 2023Edited
Comment deleted
Expand full comment

You are lucky to have lived near so many oceans! I lived in San Francisco for a while, but the ocean always seemed so far away and cold and foggy, even if it was sunny in the rest of the city. But I have visited more beaches than I can count, and Naples/Sanibel were extraordinary for beachcombing. I grew up in the dull leafy suburbs of Philadelphia, but but my best memories as a child are of going "down the shore", which I continued to do as a teen, and every time I would drive past Vineland in South Jersey, I would think of Patti and always wonder if there really was a clubhouse there.

Expand full comment