Sending Patti good vibes strength and courage. Miss your posts but sometimes we all need to recharge. Hope all is well for those that see this. Peace and love to you all.
Ugh, I can’t find the thread where this communication appears, so am just writing, as it were, into thin air, hoping that this reaches your eyes.
I’m relieved to hear from you, sorry that you’re going through a rough patch, but grateful that you have good friends to see you through. Your haikus are lovely, and I hope that you are still writing them even as you are struggling.
My recovery has taken a detour, and that’s been disheartening. Not sure what’s wrong, but I have to - and I do - trust in the wisdom and dedication of my healthcare providers. This has been a particularly hard time because the procedure has already happened, so one can’t (anymore) look ahead to that as a cure. Nothing to do but carry on and have faith. And if not faith, then abundant gratitude for any kindness on any given day.
I wish you - and everyone in this warm community - ease of suffering, and hope for brighter days ahead. I’m sure I’ve quoted these lines from Keats’s poem “To Homer” before, but since I think of them every day, it can’t hurt to repeat them herein, for you, Jim, and for all our substack friends:
Aye on the shores of darkness there is light,
And precipices show untrodden green,
There is a budding morrow in midnight,
There is a triple sight in blindness keen
With warmth and the promise of the untrodden green,
So sorry to hear about your detour. My heart and hopes go out to you. I am fine Compared to what so many others, including yourself, are going through, mine was a blip. Please keep in touch as you're able. And thanks as always for your kind comments and for sharing that wonderful quote from Keats. Thinking of you. You are a very special person.
I feel the same about the suffering of others. Life is beautiful, and it can also be really hard. We have to take the whole package, because no one gets out of this without some scars. Those that do haven’t really been alive (in my opinion). Here’s a beautiful poem (for everyone) by the late Galway Kinnell. It’s called “Wait”:
WAIT
Wait, for now.
Distrust everything if you have to.
But trust the hours. Haven’t they
carried you everywhere, up to now?
Personal events will become interesting again.
Hair will become interesting.
Pain will become interesting.
Buds that open out of season will become interesting.
Second-hand gloves will become lovely again;
their memories are what give them
the need for other hands. The desolation
of lovers is the same: that enormous emptiness
carved out of such tiny beings as we are
asks to be filled; the need
for the new love is faithfulness to the old.
Wait.
Don’t go too early.
You’re tired. But everyone’s tired.
But no one is tired enough.
Only wait a little and listen:
music of hair,
music of pain,
music of looms weaving our loves again.
Be there to hear it, it will be the only time,
most of all to hear your whole existence,
rehearsed by the sorrows, play itself into total exhaustion.
Nothing wonderful about pain unless you’re into that type of shit, but it’s very different from 24/7 pain…it’s consuming, not in a good way. My 2 cents. Fucking hate it! No beauty when it never lets up!
My spiritual advisors say give it (the pain) to God. Offer up the pain. Having written this I feel like a hypocrite. I had my shoulder replaced on 7/8 . Ive been in varying degrees if pain since January. Maybe my response will help
I do appreciate your thoughts, but I’ve tried giving it away, paying various people to take it away (docs, PT, acupuncture, massage, biofeedback, RIC Pain Clinic Chicago, Mayo Clinic Pain Management Program Jacksonville, FL)…and I’m sure I’ve missed a bunch. It’s been 30 years…it wears you down! According to CBT if I tell myself I’m good, I’m good…never had much success and I’ve been playing that game for 15 years! Now the pill popping, doctor shopping freaks have made a difficult life not only more difficult but also more expensive! Talk about a failed system!
So wonderful. The fact that you share all this extraordinary art with us is such a gift. Saying thanks seems inadequate. Sending all good thoughts your way.
Thank you for the gift of the light breeze and a rose. Please take care of yourself in the heat... the singer Santana just passed out of heat stroke on stage in a performance. They rushed him to the hospital and it looks like he will be fine. getting over heated is a dangerous thing. PLEASE TAKE CARE. 😘💝🙏
When One Is surrounded by the essential One Is full of himself and can perceive the world in the Way It Is not usually looked at.. if Life can be our artwork then simplicity and essential become art
If only every room had a breath of simplicity, if only my consciousness would be as free of clutter asa simple room that is more empty space than things not needed, if only.....
What a wonderful, mystical title! Of course, it is a mystical place. When I travelled to Florence, the pensione I stayed at was right across from Santa Maria de Novella, although that was 38 years ago! I never got to see this lovely inner courtyard with garden, though. Thank you for the detail and wonder you bring to your posts: it is so uplifting in these times of trouble. Buona notte, Patti, & grazie.
A beautiful breeze from Patti Smith-and a rose. These are precious gifts from you. Your appreciation of these treasures and of that wonderful simple room is marvelous and you present them to us
Thank you Patti for sharing your room and the breeze with us! I so appreciate your calming voice and daily thoughts on your travels in Europe! Take care! :)
What a beautiful place to play and the garden is lovely with its single roses but most of all l love your room. There is something magical about curtains blowing in the breeze, it’s mesmerising 🙏
Hello Patti - Your videos and postings make me so happy. There is a wonderful aura around you. Your speaking voice is very soothing. Thank you a million times over. Just for the record, I follow three people who are known in the entertainment world. I picked these three people because of their positive energy in a troubled world that seems to become more divided every day. You may find my three choices "odd" but I do not. I love them. They are: you Patti, Mitzi Gaynor (Facebook - she's 90 and amazing!), and Charo (Instagram - talk about positive energy!) I regularly check-in on all three as they help me stay positive too. So again, I say thank you Patti!!! Love you! Charles
Patti, maybe you and Jason and the rest of your family should stay in Europe…the senseless gun violence is out of control! 6 dead and many hurt some critically in Highland Park, IL. A young man was on a roof top shooting parade goers and people in the parade…I live in Evanston the first suburb above Chicago and everything was closed or canceled…parade, fireworks, the beach. He has been caught in a suburb north of the massacre. More swans…gun laws! This guy was 20! Not old enough to have a drink but old enough to buy a automatic weapon. Peace….please!
I understand and sympathize with your despair but just because things are bad doesn't mean that it's time to leave. On the contrary, it's time to make a stand and defend your beliefs. Gun violence. Reproductive rights. Enviromental disaster. Racial hatred. It can seem overwhelming. But I believe that there are more people who are motivated by love than driven by hate. I hope that the United States can heal itself through that love and the faith that we can all make a difference. We have to strive to make our dreams a reality. Fight the good fight. PHTP.
I’m writing here because I haven’t seen you in a while and am concerned. There haven’t been substack posts from Patti, but also, I can’t seem to find you on instagram anymore. I hope that you are all right and just taking a break from social media, which I completely understand. But if you can, please let me know that you’re well and safe.
I accidentally posted a reply that I was only halfway through completing. So here we go again. Thank you so much for reaching out I'm fine. I did quit Instagram. I thought I'd left a message on your account explaining that. Maybe it didn't go through I have rough patches from time to time and my tendency is to withdraw. That's not the healthiest choice, of course. Fortunately I have good friends who give me support and nudge me in the right direction. I have been thinking about you. I was planning to follow your recovery on Substack but, as you say, there hasn't been a lot of activity lately. I hope everything is progressing positively. Please let me know when you get the chance. And thanks so much again for your note. It means the world to me.
And I posted a reply to what might have been your original reply. I hope you find it. I can’t navigate my way through a grocery store, let alone here. Please let me know that you got my reply. If not, I’ll try again.
Jim, my wife and I called and emailed all of our representatives in Illinois about both women’s rights and automatic weapons and ammunition being sold in the US prior to the 4th. I’m open to ideas on how to change these issues…seriously.
Also, if Mr. Trump and the other people who attempted an insurrection on Jan. 6th are not imprisoned than this experiment in democracy is all over. Regards, S
Hey Steven. My comments were in no way meant as a criticism. We live in troubled times. People of good conscience must stand up. It looks as if you and your wife are doing that by making your views known to your representatives. I would hate to see the great experiment that is the United States fail because people who truly care about other people give up. You don't seem to be doing that. I live in Canada which doesn't have all the same issues that you are dealing with. But we do have, as examples, a litany of lies when dealing with reconciliation with our indiginous population, a horrible record on the environment, systematic racism and marginalization of the poor to name a few. We have to raise our voices as you have. We have to take to the streets. Peacefully. With love. Numbers count. And we have to vote. Your Supreme Court would look far different and there wouldn't have been that insurrection if Trump hadn't been elected. Sitting on the sidelines or backing away only makes things worse. So there's lots to be done. And you, and the people we share this Substack space with, prove that there are people out there who care. I have to have hope in the face of everything that screams the opposite. We're all in this together.
Hi Jim, I didn’t take your comments negatively…I understand your view. It’s just absolutely insane people are allowed to purchase automatic weapons and ammunition…only one thing they are good for and that’s killing fellow human beings. CRAZY! I’ve voted since I turned 18 in every election both local and national. The NRA is a beast and if you say “gun control” all the gun owners freak out and think it means they will no longer be able to own a gun to hunt Bambi.
We don't have the same sort of gun control issues up here. Sure, there are guns and there is violence but no where on the scale of what you are facing. I say I have hope but, if things don't change after the horrors of the past few weeks, you have to wonder. I guess you just have to keep pushing in the face of madness until reason prevails. All the best to you. (To think this whole conversation started with a video of a breeze rustling some curtains in a site deemed holy. You never know.)
Jim, I hope we are cool. I wasn’t trying to start an argument, just stating how disgusted I am with my country’s gun laws, women’s rights and a few other things. I’d join you in Canada, but it’s cold enough in Chicago! Cheers, S
This was a moving conversation to overhear/oversee/overread (whatever the appropriate verb is). Though you each expressed views that are deeply felt and held, you did so without ever dismissing the other or letting go a crucial thread of respect and camaraderie. Would that the world could debate in such a way.
With warm wishes for health, wellbeing, and peace to you both.
Do you think Jim believes me….that I took nothing negative that he said? You two seem to be friends. Just thought I’d get a second opinion. Cheers! FYI - I don’t know you or Jim but I like both of you. S
I feel the same about you, Steve, and though I don’t know Jim in person, I feel I know his heart so can say with confidence yes, he believes you. As I do. As anyone who has been reading your messages herein would.
I would like to see Patti and her family move to Europe. Hell, I'd like to move my family from the US to France where I've been living for 40 years. I have to go to the states for a visit this month and that's great to see everybody but I truly don't want to be in the US. If there was any other country who had such gun laws, anti pro-choice laws, etc, etc, I would certainly boycott that country, I'd never set foot in it. But as long as there's family there....sigh...oh well..
Casey, my grandparents came to this country because it was a better place and “the land of opportunity”….it seems as though there maybe better places to live 95 year later….to be honest I do not know, but when children are gunned down in Connecticut and little changes in any gun laws are made, it’s difficult to call it the land of opportunity…I have no problem with sportsman hunting, but no one needs an automatic weapon to kill Bambi!
The video of the breeze is beautiful. The courtyard must be the one that Isabella Stewart Gardner modeled her courtyard on, with the arches and square walkway. Tu for posting tht.
And oh, Patti, did you hear one of the single roses sneeze?
Always find your attention to detail incredibly touching as well as your genuine appreciation for the small things. I feel the same. Thank you Patti. So much.
The altar in the Basilica, with the icons and beautifully made guitars on their stands in front of it, are highly harmonious to look at. I love icons and guitars! And beautiful contemplative garden with green foliage and shrubbery-shaped crosses. A delight for the senses! 🦋
I am in middle Georgia--believe me, I would be taking pictures of breezes if I could catch them! Thank you for this beautiful post. You remind me of the week I got to spend in Florence a few years ago for a conference--I had a similarly simple and beautiful room, too. (And I went around quoting A Room with a View so much!)
Thank you, Patti. I love your humility, your ability to appreciate the smallest little details wherever you go. The fact that you have never become jaded. I met a young waiter in Asbury’s Convention Hall several months ago. We spoke of last summer’s Land to Sea concert on the beach. He was in his twenties and I asked him what he considered the best part of the show…’Patti Smith’, he replied. He said the others were good, but you really rocked it! See you in September…❤️
I actually love this type of room after a day of sensory overload when traveling. Less distractions,better sleep,and a clear mind to go over the events of the day and start fresh the next morning.
Thank you so much for these wonderful impresions! Now I will read again Hermann Hesse's "Glasperlenspiel" after 25 years ... Have a beautiful day, all the best from Vienna. Stephanie
Thanks Patti. I like your cell too, and its breezy little curtains. And the glimpse of a table set for a cool lunch in the cloisters? Your messages always calm me... that is a great gift in these times we're in. Thank you x
Hi Patti, It is such a sweet room, it's great that they put a little fridge in there. I prefer a room like that so much more than a room at the Hilton or wherever. So much more meaningful.
very glad you're ok in that heat. here we're head of the Hill and Sweet breeze wafts though house. Feel happy until memories of that wind, gale forced is why always 18° colder here.
Oh, Patti...you are always sharing the invisible with us. That's part of your sharing magic, and how we continue to inspire each other, despite the challenges~ ♡
I loved Florence when I went there. Such an exquisite city. I particularly Santa Maria di Novella, though I wasn't so lucky as to see this unassuming, but lovely cloistered garden. What a peaceful place.
You are so close and yet there is no way of seeing you in person! Sigh. At least I feel you close with your lovely messages and images. Un caro saluto Patti! I hope it cools off for you.. you definitely landed in Florence on the hottest days of the year. Take care!
A monastic room, so simple... but in a wonderful place, which invites silence and meditation. At least there is some breeze in the terrible summer heat.
G'day Patti, a simple little room with a simple desk and wonder of a garden. Drink lots of water in the heat and try to stay indoors around midday ( advice from downunder). Which is very wet and windy nice ☕☕☕ weather. Simple sweet update sing loud for us that cant and keep safe everyone 🙃🌈
I love the interior of churches. My faith lies in a different direction - untethered as you once wrote so perfectly - but there is something so peaceful about them. This Basilica looks like an extraordinarily beautiful place to perform and see a concert. Happy belated birthday to Jesse. I hope the heat hasn't been too gruelling and that you have been well. I'm so glad you were blessed with such a wonderful room. And may that lovely breeze follow you and help keep you cool.
Thank you for sharing this beautiful place with us! I am listening to firecrackers, which my pets and family dislike, and this gives me another space to be in.
I don’t have words adequate to my gratitude for this message. Seeing it, and hearing your joy in the beauty around you — that in your beholding becomes yet more beautiful — is a gift.
It’s a joke in my family that it can take me a half hour - or more - to get from one place to the next if something catches my attention and I have to stop and cherish it. I go on walks every day and do the same. Experiencing this message, I thought of Elizabeth Bishop’s lines from her poem (which is about a painting), called “Poem”: “Heavens, I recognize the place, I know it!” That’s how I felt watching — recognition for a place I’ve never been, because of the transport you lend.
It was beautiful to see your breeze, rescuing, because it’s such a hard time, both health wise for me, but far worse, in this country. Your expressions of aliveness are an outstretched hand, a mending thing.
I’m happier than I can say for all that’s happened for you on this tour. So many moments to cherish, laying down, as Seamus Heaney says, a perfect memory.
The room is amazing, the desk so good. The icon, the chair, the bedcover. Something was red. Oh, the curtains moving in the breeze. The interior courtyard, the table set for dinner, the garden, the single rose (two of them). All so beautiful.
Thank you for sharing it, Patti. As token of my gratitude, I give you Keats’s “To a Friend Who Sent Me Some Roses.”
Wishing you, and everyone here, good health and much joy.
As ever,
Robin
TO A FRIEND WHO SENT ME SOME ROSES
As late I rambled in the happy fields,
What time the sky-lark shakes the tremulous dew
From his lush clover covert;—when anew
Adventurous knights take up their dinted shields:
I saw the sweetest flower wild nature yields,
A fresh-blown musk-rose; 'twas the first that threw
Its sweets upon the summer: graceful it grew
As is the wand that queen Titania wields.
And, as I feasted on its fragrancy,
I thought the garden-rose it far excell'd:
But when, O Wells! thy roses came to me
My sense with their deliciousness was spell'd:
Soft voices had they, that with tender plea
Whisper'd of peace, and truth, and friendliness unquell'd.
Ps: I just realized that it’s the chair that is truly red. I think the window registered red for me because of the warmth, light, the color of the building outside. The drapes seem sort of umber maybe? I’d be interested in what anyone thinks the color of them is. Don’t feel you need to answer, Patti, but if you feel like it and remember, I’d love to know. They’re beautiful.
Your thoughts are so well expressed Robin ... ✨ I’m so sure that I am not alone in saying there is a shared feeling of gratitude for your exquisite words which express our many (wordless) thoughts. Thank you Robin 🙏
I’m so sorry not to have seen - and thus responded to - your kind words sooner. Be assured that I would never have ignored such generosity and warmth had I been aware of it. I truly appreciate what you’ve said and am grateful if my words resonate for you, or anyone in this warm community.
I hope you - and everyone here - are well, and getting through this fraught time as best you can.
Again, thank you so much for your warm message. I’m truly touched and grateful.
I’m using the substack app and so do get a ‘notification’ of Patti’s new messages and also of ‘likes’ to my replies to comments (on my cell)
Even though I know that I will be notified I find myself looking into my Substack more often recently, wondering if Patti has posted something that I may have missed. We all look forward to her posts but also, after their tour recently, I’ve been thinking of her health and hoping she is doing very well 🤞
I understand. I think we all hope that Patti is doing very well. The tour seems wonderful but it has to be exhausting. I trust she’ll be back when as soon as she can. Try not to worry.
I was glad to hear from you Patti, and thank you! A long day at work and July 3rd is always a melancholy day for me, remembering Brian Jones and Jim Morrison. Your video cheered me up, especially the breeze and the roses shots.
Dearest Patti, the perfect place for you on so many levels. Brings my heart joy to see you there with your fierce, humble spirit — embraced in gratitude🌹 in the poetry of the moment 🙏
Patti, belated blessings for your daughter’s birthday and thank you for sharing this sacred space with us. My sense of you is that you carry a cell of sacred space within you, a little metaphorical room, that pleases you and nurtures you wherever you go. It is one of my favorite things about you, the way you are so at home everywhere and able to identify what is charged with an indelible almost incarnate grandeur, both the menial and extraordinary, from ironing boards, roses, lemons, and breezes to cathedrals and great works of art. You carry the spirit of that San Damiano cross that you are so aptly sharing space with. I’ve missed your posts this week.
What a beautiful place and I could almost feel the breeze from your window. Glad Jessie was able to be with you on her Birthday. Sending many good wishers to you and everyone on your tour. Safe travels!
wow! i'm trying to wrap my head around being at a rock show in that space. but i'm thinking if anyone could rock and still somehow honor the sacredness of that space it's PS!
Beautiful .just so beautiful..very inspiring to sit at that desk/table and be creative.sorry about the heat any consolation? Its raining here in northern England thanks p
Thank for sharing! The garden is indeed exquisite and the room with the perfect writing desk. I don’t know if I could write in that heat though. Stay cool and hydrated Patti and have a great show!
What beauty that little church. That lovely breeze with the metal grid and color of the stone outside the building. Enjoy your set. Stay safe. Have a restful sleep. Dream of that little garden with its single roses. Be well all.
I just started the Glass Bead Game, cannot wait!!! Thank you!
What an incredible treat! You make me happy...I loved the breeze!
I could have gotten lost in that breeze. It was beautiful to watch.
Ill bet the room acoustics were pretty interesting! Thanks for sharing🪐🤞🏾🪐
You truly do see the beauty in everything💜
like a poet :) https://tumbleweedwords.substack.com/p/a-new-wave-of-foreplay
how are you? hope you are on the up and up...
Sending Patti good vibes strength and courage. Miss your posts but sometimes we all need to recharge. Hope all is well for those that see this. Peace and love to you all.
Steve, stop deleting! I can’t get to your comments fast enough.
I felt I was asking personal questions and it seemed weird to leave up longer than 3 minutes.
Steve, what’s with the deleting? It feels like “Mission Impossible.”
Dear Jim,
Ugh, I can’t find the thread where this communication appears, so am just writing, as it were, into thin air, hoping that this reaches your eyes.
I’m relieved to hear from you, sorry that you’re going through a rough patch, but grateful that you have good friends to see you through. Your haikus are lovely, and I hope that you are still writing them even as you are struggling.
My recovery has taken a detour, and that’s been disheartening. Not sure what’s wrong, but I have to - and I do - trust in the wisdom and dedication of my healthcare providers. This has been a particularly hard time because the procedure has already happened, so one can’t (anymore) look ahead to that as a cure. Nothing to do but carry on and have faith. And if not faith, then abundant gratitude for any kindness on any given day.
I wish you - and everyone in this warm community - ease of suffering, and hope for brighter days ahead. I’m sure I’ve quoted these lines from Keats’s poem “To Homer” before, but since I think of them every day, it can’t hurt to repeat them herein, for you, Jim, and for all our substack friends:
Aye on the shores of darkness there is light,
And precipices show untrodden green,
There is a budding morrow in midnight,
There is a triple sight in blindness keen
With warmth and the promise of the untrodden green,
Robin
Robin
So sorry to hear about your detour. My heart and hopes go out to you. I am fine Compared to what so many others, including yourself, are going through, mine was a blip. Please keep in touch as you're able. And thanks as always for your kind comments and for sharing that wonderful quote from Keats. Thinking of you. You are a very special person.
Jim
I feel the same about the suffering of others. Life is beautiful, and it can also be really hard. We have to take the whole package, because no one gets out of this without some scars. Those that do haven’t really been alive (in my opinion). Here’s a beautiful poem (for everyone) by the late Galway Kinnell. It’s called “Wait”:
WAIT
Wait, for now.
Distrust everything if you have to.
But trust the hours. Haven’t they
carried you everywhere, up to now?
Personal events will become interesting again.
Hair will become interesting.
Pain will become interesting.
Buds that open out of season will become interesting.
Second-hand gloves will become lovely again;
their memories are what give them
the need for other hands. The desolation
of lovers is the same: that enormous emptiness
carved out of such tiny beings as we are
asks to be filled; the need
for the new love is faithfulness to the old.
Wait.
Don’t go too early.
You’re tired. But everyone’s tired.
But no one is tired enough.
Only wait a little and listen:
music of hair,
music of pain,
music of looms weaving our loves again.
Be there to hear it, it will be the only time,
most of all to hear your whole existence,
rehearsed by the sorrows, play itself into total exhaustion.
Nothing wonderful about pain unless you’re into that type of shit, but it’s very different from 24/7 pain…it’s consuming, not in a good way. My 2 cents. Fucking hate it! No beauty when it never lets up!
My spiritual advisors say give it (the pain) to God. Offer up the pain. Having written this I feel like a hypocrite. I had my shoulder replaced on 7/8 . Ive been in varying degrees if pain since January. Maybe my response will help
I do appreciate your thoughts, but I’ve tried giving it away, paying various people to take it away (docs, PT, acupuncture, massage, biofeedback, RIC Pain Clinic Chicago, Mayo Clinic Pain Management Program Jacksonville, FL)…and I’m sure I’ve missed a bunch. It’s been 30 years…it wears you down! According to CBT if I tell myself I’m good, I’m good…never had much success and I’ve been playing that game for 15 years! Now the pill popping, doctor shopping freaks have made a difficult life not only more difficult but also more expensive! Talk about a failed system!
Wow Steven! What a journey you’re on. True that about the USA health system. We need Patti’s positivity!
So wonderful. The fact that you share all this extraordinary art with us is such a gift. Saying thanks seems inadequate. Sending all good thoughts your way.
Thank you. Your room and garden are simple and wonderful. We haven’t heard from you since and miss you very much. ❤️
single rose breeze!
Thank you for the gift of the light breeze and a rose. Please take care of yourself in the heat... the singer Santana just passed out of heat stroke on stage in a performance. They rushed him to the hospital and it looks like he will be fine. getting over heated is a dangerous thing. PLEASE TAKE CARE. 😘💝🙏
When One Is surrounded by the essential One Is full of himself and can perceive the world in the Way It Is not usually looked at.. if Life can be our artwork then simplicity and essential become art
If only every room had a breath of simplicity, if only my consciousness would be as free of clutter asa simple room that is more empty space than things not needed, if only.....
What a wonderful, mystical title! Of course, it is a mystical place. When I travelled to Florence, the pensione I stayed at was right across from Santa Maria de Novella, although that was 38 years ago! I never got to see this lovely inner courtyard with garden, though. Thank you for the detail and wonder you bring to your posts: it is so uplifting in these times of trouble. Buona notte, Patti, & grazie.
p.s. don't forget to grab a gelato for the heat.
❤️🌹❤️
A beautiful breeze from Patti Smith-and a rose. These are precious gifts from you. Your appreciation of these treasures and of that wonderful simple room is marvelous and you present them to us
Thank you Patti for sharing your room and the breeze with us! I so appreciate your calming voice and daily thoughts on your travels in Europe! Take care! :)
What a beautiful place to play and the garden is lovely with its single roses but most of all l love your room. There is something magical about curtains blowing in the breeze, it’s mesmerising 🙏
Thank you, dear Patti, for the lovely visit. ❤️
What a beautiful setting for your concert. Thank you for sharing!
Hello Patti - Your videos and postings make me so happy. There is a wonderful aura around you. Your speaking voice is very soothing. Thank you a million times over. Just for the record, I follow three people who are known in the entertainment world. I picked these three people because of their positive energy in a troubled world that seems to become more divided every day. You may find my three choices "odd" but I do not. I love them. They are: you Patti, Mitzi Gaynor (Facebook - she's 90 and amazing!), and Charo (Instagram - talk about positive energy!) I regularly check-in on all three as they help me stay positive too. So again, I say thank you Patti!!! Love you! Charles
All the souls coming through the window to give you a hug 🤗
Merci Patti cela redonne joie calme et sérénité
🙏🏼
Patti, maybe you and Jason and the rest of your family should stay in Europe…the senseless gun violence is out of control! 6 dead and many hurt some critically in Highland Park, IL. A young man was on a roof top shooting parade goers and people in the parade…I live in Evanston the first suburb above Chicago and everything was closed or canceled…parade, fireworks, the beach. He has been caught in a suburb north of the massacre. More swans…gun laws! This guy was 20! Not old enough to have a drink but old enough to buy a automatic weapon. Peace….please!
I understand and sympathize with your despair but just because things are bad doesn't mean that it's time to leave. On the contrary, it's time to make a stand and defend your beliefs. Gun violence. Reproductive rights. Enviromental disaster. Racial hatred. It can seem overwhelming. But I believe that there are more people who are motivated by love than driven by hate. I hope that the United States can heal itself through that love and the faith that we can all make a difference. We have to strive to make our dreams a reality. Fight the good fight. PHTP.
Hi Jim,
I’m writing here because I haven’t seen you in a while and am concerned. There haven’t been substack posts from Patti, but also, I can’t seem to find you on instagram anymore. I hope that you are all right and just taking a break from social media, which I completely understand. But if you can, please let me know that you’re well and safe.
Sending you every good wish.
In friendship,
Robin
Hi Robin
I accidentally posted a reply that I was only halfway through completing. So here we go again. Thank you so much for reaching out I'm fine. I did quit Instagram. I thought I'd left a message on your account explaining that. Maybe it didn't go through I have rough patches from time to time and my tendency is to withdraw. That's not the healthiest choice, of course. Fortunately I have good friends who give me support and nudge me in the right direction. I have been thinking about you. I was planning to follow your recovery on Substack but, as you say, there hasn't been a lot of activity lately. I hope everything is progressing positively. Please let me know when you get the chance. And thanks so much again for your note. It means the world to me.
All the best to you .
Honoured by your friendship.
Jim
.
And I posted a reply to what might have been your original reply. I hope you find it. I can’t navigate my way through a grocery store, let alone here. Please let me know that you got my reply. If not, I’ll try again.
Jim, my wife and I called and emailed all of our representatives in Illinois about both women’s rights and automatic weapons and ammunition being sold in the US prior to the 4th. I’m open to ideas on how to change these issues…seriously.
Also, if Mr. Trump and the other people who attempted an insurrection on Jan. 6th are not imprisoned than this experiment in democracy is all over. Regards, S
Hey Steven. My comments were in no way meant as a criticism. We live in troubled times. People of good conscience must stand up. It looks as if you and your wife are doing that by making your views known to your representatives. I would hate to see the great experiment that is the United States fail because people who truly care about other people give up. You don't seem to be doing that. I live in Canada which doesn't have all the same issues that you are dealing with. But we do have, as examples, a litany of lies when dealing with reconciliation with our indiginous population, a horrible record on the environment, systematic racism and marginalization of the poor to name a few. We have to raise our voices as you have. We have to take to the streets. Peacefully. With love. Numbers count. And we have to vote. Your Supreme Court would look far different and there wouldn't have been that insurrection if Trump hadn't been elected. Sitting on the sidelines or backing away only makes things worse. So there's lots to be done. And you, and the people we share this Substack space with, prove that there are people out there who care. I have to have hope in the face of everything that screams the opposite. We're all in this together.
Hi Jim, I didn’t take your comments negatively…I understand your view. It’s just absolutely insane people are allowed to purchase automatic weapons and ammunition…only one thing they are good for and that’s killing fellow human beings. CRAZY! I’ve voted since I turned 18 in every election both local and national. The NRA is a beast and if you say “gun control” all the gun owners freak out and think it means they will no longer be able to own a gun to hunt Bambi.
Exactly.
We don't have the same sort of gun control issues up here. Sure, there are guns and there is violence but no where on the scale of what you are facing. I say I have hope but, if things don't change after the horrors of the past few weeks, you have to wonder. I guess you just have to keep pushing in the face of madness until reason prevails. All the best to you. (To think this whole conversation started with a video of a breeze rustling some curtains in a site deemed holy. You never know.)
Jim, I hope we are cool. I wasn’t trying to start an argument, just stating how disgusted I am with my country’s gun laws, women’s rights and a few other things. I’d join you in Canada, but it’s cold enough in Chicago! Cheers, S
Steve and Jim,
This was a moving conversation to overhear/oversee/overread (whatever the appropriate verb is). Though you each expressed views that are deeply felt and held, you did so without ever dismissing the other or letting go a crucial thread of respect and camaraderie. Would that the world could debate in such a way.
With warm wishes for health, wellbeing, and peace to you both.
In friendship,
Robin
Do you think Jim believes me….that I took nothing negative that he said? You two seem to be friends. Just thought I’d get a second opinion. Cheers! FYI - I don’t know you or Jim but I like both of you. S
I feel the same about you, Steve, and though I don’t know Jim in person, I feel I know his heart so can say with confidence yes, he believes you. As I do. As anyone who has been reading your messages herein would.
And the feeling is mutual: I like you you too.
Warmly, as ever,
Robin
I believe you. I'm glad the same is true in reverse. Take good care of yourself.
Not my intent either. I get your point. And, in troubled times, we all have to stand together. Take good care.
I would like to see Patti and her family move to Europe. Hell, I'd like to move my family from the US to France where I've been living for 40 years. I have to go to the states for a visit this month and that's great to see everybody but I truly don't want to be in the US. If there was any other country who had such gun laws, anti pro-choice laws, etc, etc, I would certainly boycott that country, I'd never set foot in it. But as long as there's family there....sigh...oh well..
Casey, my grandparents came to this country because it was a better place and “the land of opportunity”….it seems as though there maybe better places to live 95 year later….to be honest I do not know, but when children are gunned down in Connecticut and little changes in any gun laws are made, it’s difficult to call it the land of opportunity…I have no problem with sportsman hunting, but no one needs an automatic weapon to kill Bambi!
It’s a beautiful breeze that inspires one to hang on it.
The video of the breeze is beautiful. The courtyard must be the one that Isabella Stewart Gardner modeled her courtyard on, with the arches and square walkway. Tu for posting tht.
And oh, Patti, did you hear one of the single roses sneeze?
Always find your attention to detail incredibly touching as well as your genuine appreciation for the small things. I feel the same. Thank you Patti. So much.
The altar in the Basilica, with the icons and beautifully made guitars on their stands in front of it, are highly harmonious to look at. I love icons and guitars! And beautiful contemplative garden with green foliage and shrubbery-shaped crosses. A delight for the senses! 🦋
La pièce est spartiate est il s’en dégage quelque chose de particulier. Une ambiance étrange. 💙☕️❤️
What a gorgeous setting. Wow! I bet the acoustics were also incredible.
I am in middle Georgia--believe me, I would be taking pictures of breezes if I could catch them! Thank you for this beautiful post. You remind me of the week I got to spend in Florence a few years ago for a conference--I had a similarly simple and beautiful room, too. (And I went around quoting A Room with a View so much!)
So refreshing. I finished your "Devotions" last night, resting from a flash flood and Covid recovery. Good to feel the breeze.
Patti this is so beautiful the sound had to be otherworldly
Thank you for sharing
Your appreciation of the simple things is so inspiring Patti. Thank you for sharing these little moments. :)
You sound tired, Patti - stay hydrated and you & the band & crew have a safe trip home for a hard- but I’m sure joyfully-earned rest.
Grazie mille per tutto!
the breeze, the roses, the little room. so sweet. xoxom
Taking a picture of a breeze. 💕
Thank you for the roses.
Thank you for sharing❤️
Thank you , Patti, for sharing your thoughts and environment. You never cease to amaze me!
Your gift is so appreciated and your posts calm my mind and ground me.
Thank you, Patti. I love your humility, your ability to appreciate the smallest little details wherever you go. The fact that you have never become jaded. I met a young waiter in Asbury’s Convention Hall several months ago. We spoke of last summer’s Land to Sea concert on the beach. He was in his twenties and I asked him what he considered the best part of the show…’Patti Smith’, he replied. He said the others were good, but you really rocked it! See you in September…❤️
I actually love this type of room after a day of sensory overload when traveling. Less distractions,better sleep,and a clear mind to go over the events of the day and start fresh the next morning.
So beautiful.
exceptional venue 😍
godere delle piccole grandi cose...❤️
It is always great to hear from you. I really look forward to your posts.
What a place to perform! Just an exquisite experience for you guys and the lucky audience..... What a final show!!
Happy Bday to Jesse !!
Thanks for the breeze and the rose !!!!!
Thank you so much for these wonderful impresions! Now I will read again Hermann Hesse's "Glasperlenspiel" after 25 years ... Have a beautiful day, all the best from Vienna. Stephanie
Beautiful! I so wish you were coming to Malta too.
Thanks Patti. I like your cell too, and its breezy little curtains. And the glimpse of a table set for a cool lunch in the cloisters? Your messages always calm me... that is a great gift in these times we're in. Thank you x
What a nice place to stay and to play!! Thank you for that breeze and the beautiful roses.
Hi Patti, It is such a sweet room, it's great that they put a little fridge in there. I prefer a room like that so much more than a room at the Hilton or wherever. So much more meaningful.
Thanks for showing us that.
Thanks. The Italian breeze cooled me as I sat in the still heat of my Brooklyn apartment. 🙏
How beautiful, Patti. Thank you for the roses, thank you for the breeze.
Thank you so much for your refreshing and uplifting post. A reminder to appreciate the beauty of what is.
very glad you're ok in that heat. here we're head of the Hill and Sweet breeze wafts though house. Feel happy until memories of that wind, gale forced is why always 18° colder here.
Exquisite in it's simplicity....
Oh, Patti...you are always sharing the invisible with us. That's part of your sharing magic, and how we continue to inspire each other, despite the challenges~ ♡
I loved Florence when I went there. Such an exquisite city. I particularly Santa Maria di Novella, though I wasn't so lucky as to see this unassuming, but lovely cloistered garden. What a peaceful place.
Simplicity !
Un endroit fait de respect et de méditation. Parfait pour vous.
Peaceful garden and lovely to see and almost feel the breeze with you. Midwest has heatwave too Yikes!
Is there any way of knowing where you’ll be playing in Florence? I would so like to see you in person!
You are so close and yet there is no way of seeing you in person! Sigh. At least I feel you close with your lovely messages and images. Un caro saluto Patti! I hope it cools off for you.. you definitely landed in Florence on the hottest days of the year. Take care!
The breeze is everything!❤️❤️
No matter how tough times can be - to see beauty in a breeze makes your mind think otherwise. I love these messages.
A monastic room, so simple... but in a wonderful place, which invites silence and meditation. At least there is some breeze in the terrible summer heat.
G'day Patti, a simple little room with a simple desk and wonder of a garden. Drink lots of water in the heat and try to stay indoors around midday ( advice from downunder). Which is very wet and windy nice ☕☕☕ weather. Simple sweet update sing loud for us that cant and keep safe everyone 🙃🌈
That was nice to see an the courtyard Patti :) Susan ps hope it cools down a bit !!
I love the interior of churches. My faith lies in a different direction - untethered as you once wrote so perfectly - but there is something so peaceful about them. This Basilica looks like an extraordinarily beautiful place to perform and see a concert. Happy belated birthday to Jesse. I hope the heat hasn't been too gruelling and that you have been well. I'm so glad you were blessed with such a wonderful room. And may that lovely breeze follow you and help keep you cool.
Seeing a message from you brings a smile to my face.
Firenze, one of my favorite places.
To travel there, via this is lovely.
You make me feel as if I'm there too.
The breeze, the simple, beautiful room, the single roses, your voice.
Happy birthday to your daughter!
Safe travels,Patti
Patti,
Thank you for sharing this beautiful place with us! I am listening to firecrackers, which my pets and family dislike, and this gives me another space to be in.
I hope you have a lovely stay. Thank you for enjoying and sharing these fleeting and exquisite moments. I wish everyone this peace.
Does it seem surreal to be in such a beautiful place? I can't even fathom this.
Enjoy your stay and the show later😊
So beautiful, Patti. I love that you captured the breeze for us. And the garden, the roses and your room . . . truly lovely. As always, many thanks.
Patti, you are always so positive even with the heat! Thanks for spreading joy in the world!
Dear Patti,
I don’t have words adequate to my gratitude for this message. Seeing it, and hearing your joy in the beauty around you — that in your beholding becomes yet more beautiful — is a gift.
It’s a joke in my family that it can take me a half hour - or more - to get from one place to the next if something catches my attention and I have to stop and cherish it. I go on walks every day and do the same. Experiencing this message, I thought of Elizabeth Bishop’s lines from her poem (which is about a painting), called “Poem”: “Heavens, I recognize the place, I know it!” That’s how I felt watching — recognition for a place I’ve never been, because of the transport you lend.
It was beautiful to see your breeze, rescuing, because it’s such a hard time, both health wise for me, but far worse, in this country. Your expressions of aliveness are an outstretched hand, a mending thing.
I’m happier than I can say for all that’s happened for you on this tour. So many moments to cherish, laying down, as Seamus Heaney says, a perfect memory.
The room is amazing, the desk so good. The icon, the chair, the bedcover. Something was red. Oh, the curtains moving in the breeze. The interior courtyard, the table set for dinner, the garden, the single rose (two of them). All so beautiful.
Thank you for sharing it, Patti. As token of my gratitude, I give you Keats’s “To a Friend Who Sent Me Some Roses.”
Wishing you, and everyone here, good health and much joy.
As ever,
Robin
TO A FRIEND WHO SENT ME SOME ROSES
As late I rambled in the happy fields,
What time the sky-lark shakes the tremulous dew
From his lush clover covert;—when anew
Adventurous knights take up their dinted shields:
I saw the sweetest flower wild nature yields,
A fresh-blown musk-rose; 'twas the first that threw
Its sweets upon the summer: graceful it grew
As is the wand that queen Titania wields.
And, as I feasted on its fragrancy,
I thought the garden-rose it far excell'd:
But when, O Wells! thy roses came to me
My sense with their deliciousness was spell'd:
Soft voices had they, that with tender plea
Whisper'd of peace, and truth, and friendliness unquell'd.
beautiful message
Ps: I just realized that it’s the chair that is truly red. I think the window registered red for me because of the warmth, light, the color of the building outside. The drapes seem sort of umber maybe? I’d be interested in what anyone thinks the color of them is. Don’t feel you need to answer, Patti, but if you feel like it and remember, I’d love to know. They’re beautiful.
Thank you for putting into words is thinking and feeling about Patty‘s posting. Such a privilege and a gift that she gives me (us).
Your thoughts are so well expressed Robin ... ✨ I’m so sure that I am not alone in saying there is a shared feeling of gratitude for your exquisite words which express our many (wordless) thoughts. Thank you Robin 🙏
Dear Maree,
I’m so sorry not to have seen - and thus responded to - your kind words sooner. Be assured that I would never have ignored such generosity and warmth had I been aware of it. I truly appreciate what you’ve said and am grateful if my words resonate for you, or anyone in this warm community.
I hope you - and everyone here - are well, and getting through this fraught time as best you can.
Again, thank you so much for your warm message. I’m truly touched and grateful.
As ever,
Robin
Hi Robin,
Yes, indeed, your words truly resonate✨🙏
I’m using the substack app and so do get a ‘notification’ of Patti’s new messages and also of ‘likes’ to my replies to comments (on my cell)
Even though I know that I will be notified I find myself looking into my Substack more often recently, wondering if Patti has posted something that I may have missed. We all look forward to her posts but also, after their tour recently, I’ve been thinking of her health and hoping she is doing very well 🤞
I understand. I think we all hope that Patti is doing very well. The tour seems wonderful but it has to be exhausting. I trust she’ll be back when as soon as she can. Try not to worry.
Warmly,
Robin
BTW .. I think ‘umber’ is a good call for the colour of those breathing curtains
I’m so glad you do. I spent a ridiculously long time trying to decipher and decide what color those lovely drapes were. My best to you.
Lovely to hear from you. Nice place to finish up. Stay hydrated Love You
Only you could take such a beautiful picture of a wonderful breeze
I was glad to hear from you Patti, and thank you! A long day at work and July 3rd is always a melancholy day for me, remembering Brian Jones and Jim Morrison. Your video cheered me up, especially the breeze and the roses shots.
" I don't know, it must have been the roses"...
Sometimes a sound is cooling, sometimes a sight, like your curtain. Thanks for the peaceful vision.
Hau’oli la hanau to your beautiful Jesse 🌺
Your voice: the perfect accompaniment, everything is breathing thus sacred. With gratitude for your many acts of generosity🙏🏽
Dearest Patti, the perfect place for you on so many levels. Brings my heart joy to see you there with your fierce, humble spirit — embraced in gratitude🌹 in the poetry of the moment 🙏
What an incredible place to perform in. thanks for the post. I was thinking about you, so I was glad to see this.
Patti, belated blessings for your daughter’s birthday and thank you for sharing this sacred space with us. My sense of you is that you carry a cell of sacred space within you, a little metaphorical room, that pleases you and nurtures you wherever you go. It is one of my favorite things about you, the way you are so at home everywhere and able to identify what is charged with an indelible almost incarnate grandeur, both the menial and extraordinary, from ironing boards, roses, lemons, and breezes to cathedrals and great works of art. You carry the spirit of that San Damiano cross that you are so aptly sharing space with. I’ve missed your posts this week.
I think I walked there 🙏🎶🎵thank you 🌹
Wow. Stunning space to perform in for you and your stunning music ! 🌹
Thank you for the beautiful breeze! Sleep well.
What a beautiful place and I could almost feel the breeze from your window. Glad Jessie was able to be with you on her Birthday. Sending many good wishers to you and everyone on your tour. Safe travels!
Thank you for the gift of the breeze! Definitely need it tonight. I shall sleep well ♥️
So good to see a posting-- I'd worried something may have been amiss!
I hope Jesse's birthday was a glorious day!
What an incredible, beautiful space to perform in. A timeless work of art and history.
with the wind, memories drift arbitrarily about --- thanks for sharing your journey xoxo
🌹’Tis a gift to be simple🖤
Yea! We thought that we'd lost you & your sub stack. I look forward to your posts daily. Thank you! (Teeny Tiny Teacher_
Thank you for that Delightful breeze. Florence is the home of Dante, author of the book that changed my life.
Patti, are these venues the type/same places you’ve played in the past while in Europe? Thanks. S
This is so dear. Thank you, Patti. And Happy Birthday to your daughter, Jesse.
wow! i'm trying to wrap my head around being at a rock show in that space. but i'm thinking if anyone could rock and still somehow honor the sacredness of that space it's PS!
Thank you Patti. It’s been so hot here in NJ. the court yard is tranquil… thank you for sharing its image 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽❤️
your breeze left a smile into my home
Patti’s voice is soothing....
Beautiful .just so beautiful..very inspiring to sit at that desk/table and be creative.sorry about the heat any consolation? Its raining here in northern England thanks p
Lovely; thank you for sharing this!
beautiful, simple and over the top
nothing better than a sweet gentle breeze🐚
Thank you Patti.
Thank for sharing! The garden is indeed exquisite and the room with the perfect writing desk. I don’t know if I could write in that heat though. Stay cool and hydrated Patti and have a great show!
What beauty that little church. That lovely breeze with the metal grid and color of the stone outside the building. Enjoy your set. Stay safe. Have a restful sleep. Dream of that little garden with its single roses. Be well all.
Less is more, a timeless wisdom.
🌻 ♥️
🖤
What a sacred space to conjure peace on earth !
What an extraordinary venue!
Wow! That’s beautiful