Hello everybody,
Happy June. A short greeting from Brussels, my tour diary to follow. A lovely overcast day, a concert tonight and much to look forward to…..
Ready for more?
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Thank you for doing this tour diary. It's wonderful.
🖤
Unfortunately, I am no longer going to read what Patti Smith says, as she thinks treating women in a sexist manner is reasonable.
Beautiful
Am I the only one who yelled DO NOT FALL
Always thanks for sharing part of your artistic Life and for considering your followers as Friends.. enjoy your stay there..
So happy for you all and TheTribe, to be back on track! Traveling and spreading joyful noises again!ay all stay safe 🙏 Can't wait for more of your journey. Love from LES🗽
Thanks
Patti hoy are just Great and it is great to se Brussles through your eyes
❤️ I love your post Patti ❤️
What a lovely post. It was like you were talking from up in the clouds just like an angel
Understand.
what a lovely place! enjoy!
Hi Patti!! Fab view and looking forward to the diary.
Oh, what a great view! As other Substack fellows mentioned already, thanks for being the link between these generations, past and present, and for continuing to share your timeless creations! Some nice people shared brief snippets of last night (no spoiler alert, no worries, only teasers) - what a tasteful guitarist Jackson is, and the whole band, each one in echo to the other... And then Tony Shanahan cementing with this bad (b)ass groove, yeah Mama! Jubilee relocated to Brussels! Thanks for starting the diary, that's very kind. No matter the ties, always appears to be a family affair with your fans and band. Chapeau for the JD statement, respect to you for supporting others for all the right reasons. Enjoy the tour!
So nice to see you Patti.
it's really nice to see you on tour again so enjoy this magical energy of the stage. one of my biggest friends, the one who years ago introduced me to your work, will attend one of your concerts in spain!
Beautiful 🪨✨
That magic view!!! 🙏🏻 Safe travels x
Love you.. thank you🙏
Beautiful view! Thank you for sharing and have a safe trip!
What fun!
Thank you for the message. Brussels looks beautiful! We are all with you on your tour - in thoughts and wishing you and your band a wonderful experience, good health and safe travels.
Hi Patti. You reminded me of the greatness of Nina and I lay in bed listening to Black Swan. I dreamt about ginger cats who smiled when you looked at them.
It was very good to see you live on your phone like that.... With your balcony view of Brussels.
I always wondered what it was like from your website when you travel. With just the picture of your suitcase on the floor getting ready to travel. I'm so glad you decided to go viral so that we could know more about you. This is great !
Happy June 1st! I am very often confined to bed so I throughly enjoy your shared travel adventures, both outer and inner!
Hang in, from another chronic bed user.😻
Oh Vira I’m sorry your in the bed club! We will all get through each day, and on this day you have put a smile on my face, and I am grateful 😊
Beautiful view! And to think, they right there 100 years before I was born. I loved learning that too. Enjoy, Patti! You look happy, sweet one. Be safe.
Patti, thank you for The Melting. I recently joined your Patreon and was so happy to catch up on the series after having returned from an early Spring small boat cruise of Alaska’s Inside Passage. Visited Glacier Bay and even had to run from a small tsunami caused by a glacier calving. Lingering on the words of The Melting in this week since our return, it has made the Northern life seem remnant, even though the muggy Virginia Summer is apparent outside. Thank you.
Brussels looks beautiful! It is so exciting to be sharing your travels Patti ….. Thank you ! Enjoy the tour and the return of all that we have missed over the past two years ! 💙
Just fantastic, beautiful watching that on my iPhone . Really enjoying your post . Best regards Michael Welch
So Lovely enjoy your tour:)
You did a perfect job of capturing that amazing view! Thanks for sharing with us; looking forward to your travel journal
Hi Patti.. historic view on yr balcony in Brussels.. yes I thought I missed yr London start of tour. But its setting up Thanks and enjoy 🌺❣️🌷🌷🌷❣️🌺🎶
Thank you for being sincere and generous with you thoughts and musings. Enjoy this your and May it all sail smoothly!
Thank you for being wonderful and bringing joy!
Love love love Brussels! My first big city stop on my young 19-year old self hitchhiking adventure across the western edge of Europe that routed me to Matala, Crete! Hopefully you’ll visit the Manniquin Pis! Have a fantastic time in that beautiful City!
1873! I love that you care about something that happened so long ago and can bring it alive for us!
It's always a pleasure to see & hear you. (Teeny Tiny Teacher)
How lovely to be in your pocket while you travel, Patti! Thanks for including us. 💖
Thanks for the message and the beautiful view! Amuse-toi bien!
Laissez les bons temps rouiller.
Thinking of that wonderful movie, In Bruges...
Hallo dear Patti, thanks for your message ! Beatiful view! I've never travelled to Brussels. But some of my paintings were shown there...😃Hope to see this place one day! Today is my birthday and I am very happy and thankful because my lovely husband bought us two tickets for your concert in Hamburg! Yeah!!! I didn't expect that and was searching for some tickets on ebay! What a beautiful surprise!!!!😍😍😍See you soon in Stadtpark!! 😘😀😀🥳👏
🖤🖤🖤
Lovely view...Never been to Brussels or anywhere outside the US.. thanks for letting us travel through words and little glimpses through your eyes. Be Safe and ENJOY it ALL!
You are a ray of sunshine in this world Patti, and especially so today, with your golden hued jacket amidst the backdrop of mottled white and blue/grey skies.
Happiest of trails and such a beautiful hello and view. May safe adventures come your way Patti you are always thinking of us! PS my latest ephiphany are a few fav pages I go back to from your books (re-read of M Train pg. 101. and re-read of Just Kids pg. 84 untitled collage from hardcover illustrated 2018 edition) but now I have to temp put them down to read your others - Ugh!
Rabbit rabbit!
You are such a delight! Thank you for the update!
Thank you, Patti, for sharing some beauty to remember is around us in the midst of so much craziness
appreciate your sharing the view !
Hi Patti , lovely to see you!
That was a nice video, all colour coordinated black and white, patches of sky blue and your tasty mustard jacket. Every report is that the concerts are wonderful, can’t wait to see you here in Barcelona in 15 days 💛💙
That was a nice video, all colour coordinated black and white, patches of sky blue and your tasty mustard jacket. Every report is that the concerts are wonderful, can’t wait to see you here in Barcelona in 15 days 💛💙
Hi Patti! Nice to have you on the same continent! Will you be in Italy?? Happy June to you too!
Thanks for sharing the view, enjoy the city and happy travels...great to see you this morning x
Good morning and wow what a beautiful view, those clouds look incredible. We have had so many amazing cloud formations of late and as l look out my window in London l see virtually the same ones. Enjoy your time in Brussels 🙏
G'day Patti the update from Brussels helps us keep that creative heavy energy flowing in troubled times. Your smile is contagious keep safe in your travels by the river of song ☕🌈
Happy June 1sr Patti!
Thank you Patti for including us on your tour adventure
Can't wait to see where we end up on the tour diary. Thank you 💚
Beautiful energy!
Loved the concert yesterday night. How good to see you back live after 3 long years. And you're still full of energy! Hope you have an amazing tour!
Have a great tour and be sure to stop by Massachusetts at some point. We're ready and waiting!
Thx Patti, wishing you an amazing tour .. your post from London was so moving .. I just read an article on the CBC about a life long NRA member resigning and getting rid of his guns .. trying to find cracks where the light will shine in.
Gratitude for this and also for the Wittgenstein photos on IG, the purple umbrella and buttercups. That post was so special to me. Thank you.
Patti, you did a great job with your phone! Such an amazing view . . . thanks for sharing it with us. Always so good to hear from you . . . travel safe.
Oh, such a delight to see while having a hot chocolate! I look forward to more mornings with you while having hot chocolate (here in the Appalachian foothills of OH US)!
Great tour 4 u, Patti! Beautiful the view from your balcony! Wanna more about that Rimbaud and Verlaine story 🙃
Have a beautiful tour & journey! Stay safe 💜🎶💜
Be safe…be careful, rock on🖤🌹🎶
Videos are amazing. You are rockin’ the stage👏🏼👏🏼
Beautiful view Patti! You did great with the phone. Best wishes and enjoy your tour 🥰
Hi Patti, looking forward to seeing you tonight! On the plane now to Brussels from Dublin. Thank you for taking so good care of your subscribers
Love you Patti! What an amazing medieval building in your view! It's first day of winter here in Australia, nice and chilly. I hope you have a wonderful tour, love from this part of the world. Jen X
You’re so up high - not an ivory tower though! Be safe.
Oh What a wonderful view! Cannot wait to see you in Dresden ans Berlin! Stay healthy! And good luck fit the tour!
What a heart-stopping view! Thank you for sharing it with us. You did great with the phone! Love you so much! Have a great tour.
good morning! have a fun night !
Good morning 🌞 what a view! Thank you for letting us have a look. I know what you mean when you say you’re trying to get used to using your energies in ways that haven’t been used since 2020. So thank you for sharing that with us as well! It’s always a joy to know we’re not alone in our experience. Take good care!!!
Good morning! Splendid view from your room. Have an outstanding time on your tour! I'm certain you'll receive much well-deserved accolades along the way. Eagerly awaiting the next episode from Europe.
So beautiful. Thank you . Have a good day.☕
No voice, no face, no music to an ear could have landed more happily, rescuingly, than yours just has, Patti. I half believe I made you up, you felt so near. I’ve just awakened having fallen unconscious in a heap of pain under a blanket of lethargy.
I turned 60 Thursday (this is not a pitch for a birthday wish - you just gave me the greatest gift) and all I wanted was to watch my eldest son (not the one you once greatly helped me with; his older brother) get married. I was/am not well enough make the trip from NYC to Boston, as I’d hoped I’d be. My former husband, the father of my children, FaceTimed me from the tiny wedding in Boston’s City Hall.
While I telephone watched, my face a little square beneath the big screen of their lives, I thought, maybe this is what heaven will be: the transcendent joy of seeing those you love love and be loved. To believe that amidst and in spite of all your imperfections, the hardships you could not prevent (you try to remind yourself) you facilitated an environment in which sprung a capacity for love. To know you worked every day of your life to earn your keep by celebrating the awesome beauty of being alive and tried, equally enthusiastically, to alleviate as much suffering as possible. Recited as much poetry as possible since one can’t smell the lilacs that “. .. Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” without warbling in one’s own throat the song of the hermit thrush.
Seeing your face big on my screen, the beautiful scene you showed, the size of it, your sound, your humor, humility, reliability, your stamina, was manna for me as I lie here, afraid, in pain, thinking of Courtney Love’s great album title, “Live through This.” I really follow her advice!
I have been fortunate in my life to be rescued by the likes of you popping up as you have today, mustard against gray. I hope you’ll watch this video someday and paint a self portrait. In my mind’s eye, I see you in “Dream of Life,” close against the canvas, touching the paint. That’s how I imagine you would paint a portrait after your tour. Yourself against the crowd. In the beautiful photos I’ve seen online it’s you in that awesome liminal space between against and with a crowd. In this video, it’s a crowd of gray Brussels, and you in mustard with what look like excellent sturdy sunglasses which makes me inexplicable happy to see. So important to care for eyes and teeth. Everything, but eyes and teeth really need to be maintained if one wants to be here for the long haul, which with every fiber of my being, I hope you are.
I can’t think of anyone since Whitman himself who so truly answers his call as you do, Patti:
O how shall I warble myself for the dead one there I loved?
And how shall I deck my song for the large sweet soul that has gone?
And what shall my perfume be for the grave of him I love?
Sea-winds blown from east and west,
Blown from the Eastern sea and blown from the Western sea, till there on the prairies meeting,
These and with these and the breath of my chant,
I’ll perfume the grave of him I love.
When my brother was dying of AIDS in the early 1990’s (before the wonderful anti-virals), I used to put lilacs in a jar by his bed so he’d awaken to the smell of them. From the moment I saw you at the Beacon with Dylan in August 1995, when I was a new mother, newly bereft of my brother, you’ve helped me, by example, to perfume the grave of them that I love. And ratified my belief that in so doing, one cherishes better those who are here, this life, to praise the mutilated world (Zagajewski’s poem) even as, in the words of Grace Paley, we “go forth with fear and courage and rage to save the world.”
You manage to do both, with humility and humor to spare. I’m sorry for the desultory nature of this. I’m trying to thank you in some proportion equal to the depth of my gratitude.
Here is the Wallace Stevens poem I FaceTimed read to my son, Dan, and his bride, Rebecca, on the occasion of their wedding. I give it to you, Patti, and this Melting community, in gratitude. May the wheel survive the myths. May the pines be cornets. May your lives be fluent in even the wintriest bronze.
The Sense Of The Sleight-Of-Hand Man
- by Wallace Stevens
One's grand flights, one's Sunday baths,
One's tootings at the weddings of the soul
Occur as they occur. So bluish clouds
Occurred above the empty house and the leaves
Of the rhododendrons rattled their gold,
As if someone lived there. Such floods of white
Came bursting from the clouds. So the wind
Threw its contorted strength around the sky.
Could you have said the bluejay suddenly
Would swoop to earth? It is a wheel, the rays
Around the sun. The wheel survives the myths.
The fire eye in the clouds survives the gods.
To think of a dove with an eye of grenadine
And pines that are cornets, so it occurs,
And a little island full of geese and stars:
It may be that the ignorant man, alone,
Has any chance to mate his life with life
That is the sensual, pearly spouse, the life
That is fluent in even the wintriest bronze.
🛞✨🛞
Wishing you relief from your pain, Robin. My closest friend lives with constant pain so I have some idea of the toll it can take. The fact that you can post these comments and share with us the wonderful thoughts of Whitman and Stevens, not to mention all the other passages you sprinkle throughout your always engaging writings, is a testament to your spirit. Thanks as always. Hoping for nothing but the best for you. Take good care.
Thank you, as ever, for your good thoughts and friendship herein, Jim. I’m more grateful than I can say.
I’m so sorry that your closest friend lives with pain, Jim. I wish for them strength and ease of suffering. If you think It would be useful to them, I recommend Keats’s notion of “Soul Creation,” which entails a human heart undergoing a world of feverish suffering that Keats likened to an education. In a letter, he described the process this way:
“I will call the world a School instituted for the purpose of teaching little children to read—I will call the human heart the horn Book used in that School—and I will call the Child able to read, the Soul made from that school and its hornbook. Do you not see how necessary a World of Pains and troubles is to school an Intelligence and make it a soul? A Place where the heart must feel and suffer in a thousand diverse ways!”
It’s not a cure for suffering, but it helps to feel that it’s not endured for nothing. I wish your friend well, and send you, as ever, my best.
Warmly,
Robin
Thanks for your thoughtfulness, Robin. I will pass this on to her when we speak tonight. She lives in Albuquerque which is a fair distance from where I live in Toronto so I often feel a sense of helplessness when I speak with her and hear the pain in her voice. Thank you for sharing this with me. The amount of knowledge and insight you have is staggering. I know the names of the Powerpuff Girls. Not quite the same. Maybe I wasted a lot of my intellectual life on the wrong things.. But, seriously, thank you again so much and please accept my warmest wishes for your well-being.
Jim
Dear Jim,
Don’t even think of denigrating your knowledge or characterizing your experience - intellectual or otherwise - as having been wasted. Not when you are as empathic, and in attention as you are herein, and for your friend.
There isn’t a right way to get to where one optimally arrives which is, after all, to be awake, of use, and alive.
To my mind, you are all those things.
As for the distance between you and your friend, it’s no bar to your being present for her. Against physical separation as a bar to the prairie of intimacy is Emily Dickinson:
To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.
🐝
To your friend in Albuquerque and you,
Robin
Thanks for your kind words, Robin. I was kidding about my 'intellectual life'. It's true that I'm mainly a pop culture kinda guy but that's what has brought me the most pleasure over the years. I truly appreciate your references, though, as they take me down pathways I have only glanced at before. And they certainly enrich my life.
I love Emily Dickinson, by the way. I have a Dwell in Possibility magnet on my fridge. It was a joy being introduced to another of her works.
As for my friend, I dislike the distance but I feel the connection. We do what we can do.
And I like our Substack connection too, Robin. Your thoughts always bring light to my day. Take good care of yourself.
Jim
I’m very sorry that you deal with chronic pain. I wish you strength and comfort.
Seriously, no sorry necessary…all people deal with issues. Appreciate your concern. Cheers!
Hello Robin! I am off to work but cannot go without wishing you the happiest belated birthday. Please take care of yourself, your enduring enthusiasm is at least a mild elixir for pain. Happy birthday!!!
Thank you so much, Patti. Your wish is greatly appreciated. And yes to the elixir for pain. Beauty (like books, as Dickinson said) is a Frigate. You’re an elixir too.
It would have been amazing to see the lives of so many who died young…from disease, overdose, suicide, etc. To paraphrase Jim Carroll all my friends have died! Died! Sad but true.
That's a very beautiful view ! Thanks Patti.
Beautiful view Patti, have a great tour ❤️
ICI S'ÉLÉVAIT
L'HÔTEL "À LÀ VILLE DE COURTRAI"
OU, LE 1O JUILLET 1873,
PAUL VERLAINE BLESSA ARTHUR RIMBAUD
D'UN COUP DE REVOLVER
X
Thank you and have a good time in Brussels!
This is amazing. I love that coat you're wearing.
Beautiful as always. You and your view. Love to hear from you. You look energized from travel and preforming. Enjoy and be safe.
Thank you for this portal into your world - what a joy to be able to share in your adventures, thank you!
Good Morning Patti! You did very well with the phone, and thank you for sharing that enchanting view from your balcony. Love the notes from the tour. Stay safe and saty well.
Oohh Brussels!! All Belgium is amazing. And what an amazing view!!! Good beginning of the tour and see you in Spain!!
Bloody freezing start to winter in Melbourne, Australia. Have fun touring and your many adventures along the way😊
Happy June to you! 12 more days and finally I can see you live in Stuttgart, Germany!
Happy June 1st ; mahalo for checking in and sharing your view . Let the adventures begin! 🌍
Love this! What a stunning view. Thank you. X
🎤🎸🎵🎚🎶🎛🎼🎹🥁
Hi Patti.Many thanks for your update. Being dane, I just wonder when we'll have the pleasure and honour to see you here in Copenhagen. wishing you a beautiful tour.
I so enjoy your messages. May your first gig be enjoyable for you and your fans.
A bientôt et merci
Your generous videos make me so happy. And I love Brussels (and Ghent) so much - such a treat to see that beautiful city. I can’t wait to get back to Belgium - and to hear more from you!
US concert dates?
Thank you for sharing the rooftops and beautiful sky of Brussels. It was my home for 11 years. I hope you like the chocolate!
Thanks Patti. Touring is work enough. The fact that you are sharing a tour diary with us is a great gift. This short video makes your joy of being in Brussels and sharing the city with the very real presence of Verlaine and Rimbaud come alive. As always, a delight.
Thank you so much! You are always an inspiration. It is hard to find the energy to get going again, please tell us how you are doing it. Looking forward to seeing all the views from your phone!
Thanks Patti 🙏
I wish you a good stay in Brussels and a very nice tour 💙☕️❤️
On the photos and videos, I did not see Lenny. He's not on the tour ?
Beautiful view! And beautiful YOU Patti! Looking forward to watching more of your tour diary ❤
I'm sure I am speaking for everybody here when I say that we all look forward to hearing about your adventures in Europe. For those of us in the Great Southern land it seems so far away, what with Covid restrictions on travel, closed borders etc. Stay safe Patti, and have fun while on tour!
I look forward to following your adventures vicariously.
Good job 😉! Enjoy Brussels and see u tonight!
So good to hear from you, Patti! What a lovely view! Amazing architecture, I love the slate roof. Have fun!!
The phone video was great -- thanks for showing us the beautiful view from your balcony! Already looking forward to more notes from the road. You and your band and crew stay safe, okay? ☮️✨🙏
Always such a joy to see you spreading joy about little and not so little things. 💖 enjoy the tour, stay safe💖
hello everybody. You will receive another missive today and then we will catch up soon in real time. I will take more pictures, more amateur phone videos and write.....
Dear Patti, I am an artist from Athens. I want to send you something personal. Where could I send it?
Have a beautiful month and a more beautiful summer! Keep making the world a better place!
We are waiting for you in Athens.
Yay!
Thank you!
Happy June, Happy tour, Patti 🎈
you look so joyful patti! rock and roll girl back on the road again...thank you for this cutest hello from your balcony ❤️
How lovely to see you in Brussels, keeping company with the spirits of Verlaine and Rimbaud. And thank you so much for your posts that delight and cheer me with their curiosity and generosity. Plus- it's reassuring that it's not just me who has trouble getting to grips with technology sometimes!
Such a joy to see ya there💕🙌 Have a blast at your show💫
This was great! What a magnificent view! You brightened my day
Welcome in Belgium dear Patti! Such an honor to have you here. 🧡
Love the little glimpse from your phone, and for acknowledging the demands of writing in solitude versus performing for the world. So excited to see you at Paradiso in Amsterdam, Patti!
That was sooo cute. I can’t wait to see you at Ali Pali in July. Love ya. X
Morning Patti, I saw you at Bearded Theory on Saturday, you were all awesome and it was worth the wait. Hope you have a great tour, love you 👋
Brussels looks magical! Happy June, and have a great tour. 💜
Hi Patti, I’m happy everyone is safe and on tour! I love Brussels, swear they had the best food I ate in Europe…anyway, enjoy, rock, and by all means have fun, but be cautious of that rotten Covid! It’s rearing it’s ugly head again. And a big Shoutout to Lenny! Love that man! Cheers!
Good morning Patti great concert yesterday trank you for this beautiful energy 🥰🤩😘
Thank you dear Patti for all the good vibes you give us - you are magic !
Safe Travels Patti - so happy you are taking your magic out to the world again.
Happy june Patti...thank you..see you at Lyon...so happy
Thank you for taking us to Brussels, Patti, and closer to Rimbaud and Verlaine. Best of lucks with the tour!
Welcome to grey and mystical Brussels, dear Patti!
I'm so sad I wasn't able to get a ticket to see you tonight... It's lovely to feel you physically close today, though.
Happy June!
So exciting to be travelling with you. Go well x
Thanks for taking us along on your journeys. ❤️
Good morning & gapt June, enjoy the tour. All the very best, Deni d 🤗❤️🖤
Wonderful! Have a great show in Brussels !your always beyond amazing live ! Fantastic romantic view across the street from where Arthur Rimbaud and Verlaine stayed ! Ahhh Devine xo
josie
Have a great show! Thanks for the video🙏🏼🌺☀️🌈
Good morning, Patti! A very beautiful view, to fhank you for sharing it!
Good morning, Patti! Can’t wait to see you tonight! And thank you for the magic space you have created also here in Substack!
Greetings from a Greek who lives in Norway and traveled to Brussels to experience your concert tonight!
have safe travels and a great time.