Product Description

In linked pieces Patti Smith tells the story of a man on a journey to see the Southern Cross, who is reflecting on his life and fighting the illness that is consuming him. Metaphoric and dreamy, this tale of transformation arises from Smith's knowledge of Mapplethorpe as a young man and as a mature artist, his close relationship with his patron and friend, Sam Wagstaff, and his years surviving AIDS and his ascent into death. Rich in detail, it is filled with references to Mapplethorpe's work and shows the man beneath the persona. Set against photographs by Mapplethorpe, the work emerges as a hymn, a prayer, a fable wishing him Godspeed on his latest journey.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #823455 in Books
• Published on: 1997-06-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 72 pages

Review
After Thoughts
An Auctioned Heart
A Bed Of Roses
Crux
The Herculean Moth
Imago
Light Play
Magua
Monkeyshines
Music: A Woman
The Passenger M
The Pedestal
Rank And File
The Solomon Islands
Staff Of Life
The Throw
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

She was once our savage Rimbaud, but suffering has turned her into our St. John of the Cross, a mystic full of compassion. -- Edmund White

About the Author
Patti Smith is known as a singer and songwriter for her albums, which include Horses, Easter, and Wave from the Patti Smith Group, and Dream of Life recorded with her late husband, Fred Sonic Smith. Her latest album is Gone Again (1996). She is the author of Early Work: 1970-1979 and lives with her two children in New York.

Customer Reviews

Staggeringly beautiful and elegantly restrained.
This gorgeous elegaic tribute to Mapplethorpe, to the enduring and transforming power of Love, is like a drop of purest gold that will work quiet alchemy in your spirit; elegant, restrained, and all the more powerful for the subtle discipline Ms Smith brings - as ever - to her heartfelt poems and meditations. We're privileged to share this healing, necessary work. Staggering and Beautiful.

Beautiful, haunting, touching.
By far the most effective writing in this book is that of the introduction. Patti Smith recalls her first and last meetings with Robert Maplethorpe, whereby she somehow manages -- by drawing upon both the similarities and differences of these two experiences -- to express the anguish and tragedy of his death. If there are any doubts about Smith's poetic ability, this brief, beautiful tribute to her friend should lay them to rest. The following pages contain some of Maplethorpe's most serene work, and Smith's writing is no less inspired. Lacking the pretention of some of her earlier work, these words are lucid, honest, heartfelt, and rewarding.

patti smith -an artist and her book
when i first heard 'horses' by patti smith,i thoght it was the most sublime artwork to inwade my little pretentious arty world;i thought it was better than sex, masturbation,writing or even drinking - my whole life had been transposed. yet, in years that came, patti had found away to transcend even the beauty of the actual physical existence she so celebrated w/ her life, her art, the people she loved;the little girl of vivid dreams growing into a youg poetess,into a visionary artist, a wife, a mother - the seclusion embraced by chosing domesticy only proppeling her to mature as an artist and a person; robbert mapplethorpe had been a dear friend who helped her to find her true calling - art;his gift had been taken from us all too soon by aids. she could not weep so she wrote her sorrow : about passenger m who, terminally ill, sets on his last journey, a pilgrimage to see the southern cross;in his last days he questions his life which had been beautiful and which he adorned w/ his gift of the perfect placement of things; it had not been a perfect life however- he was unable to find a balance beetween his desire for perfection and the actual life itself; thus he was dying alone, his last wish to see his ideal the southern cross: perhaps in his mind he had failed to be what he wished, but his passing away was beautiful and he left behind his art to light the way of those treading after him, us. pattis work tells us about the inner struggle of the artist, she describes robbert as an artist (no matter what else he might have been),inducing us to believe in the power and importance of art in our life; her book is a loving elegie to her friend, her beloved compeer, her unfettered joy. leena spite.