Auguries of Innocence by Patti Smith

When rock stars write, pens and keyboards hide; notso acute/ that dreams could/ produce blood/ a
in Patti Smith's case, however. Patti Smith is a poetthorny path/ littered with wings.
through and through, and I believe she is more of aOur Jargon Muffles the Drum is another work of
poet than a musician. Her poetry is both concreteprose, a stream of consciousness piece that leaves
and abstract, yet powerful, lyrical, and poignant, andthe reader breathless through three plus pages; yet,
she can draw word pictures that come alive.the words carry the sound and meaning with music
This volume of poetry contains twenty-six poemsand a sense of relatedness.
with a quotation from William Blake, as if it were anThe Writer's Song is the last poem in the book. it is
introduction. The title of the book is also a quotebetter to write/ than die is a reminder that writers
from Blake.are alive and related in living and that life and writing
The book opens with an introspective poem, Thebleed into each other.
Lovecrafter. I felt most any poet could relate toPatricia Lee Smith or Patti Smith was born in 1946.
what is expressed in it. The Long Road spoke to me,She is a poet, musician, artist, and songwriter. With
but then Smith's poetry is powerful and it isher 1975 album Horses, she gained fame for being
impossible not to identify with lines like "We brokethe main influence on punk rock. She was inducted to
our mother's heart and became ourselves./ Wethe Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 12, 2007.
proceeded to breathe and therefore to leave,She maintains that poets Blake, Stevenson and
drunken, astonished, each of us a god.Rimbaud have influenced her poetry. Her published
In The Pythagorean Traveler, can be felt somethingworks are: Seventh Heaven, A Useless Death,
universally potent that seeps from the divine to theVerlaine, Kodak, The Coral Sea, Babel, Early Morning
individual. The prose poem Written by a Lake isDream, The Night, Ha! Ha! Houdini!, Notes for the
words making music while coming alive. The meaningFuture, Woolgathering, Wild Leaves, Patti Smith
skips between the tangible and the intangible withoutComplete, Strange Messenger. Selected Letters of
losing the wholeness of the piece.Gregory Corso, and Auguries of Innocence.
Birds of Iraq might have some political needling builtAuguries of Innocence is more than a major
into it; even so, it may be preferable to look at it onaccomplishment; it is collection of poems that are
a wider human scale, at a country torn apart,insightful, fiery, affecting, and distressing. Patti Smith's
violence smeared all over with gusto, and the sensepoetry imposes upon the reader her intimate vision
of loss permeating beyond the loss of human bodies.of the world, but then, moving the reader from the
Still, the poem is a protest against those who commitdepths of sorrow to empathy and insight is what a
human rights violations. And never again/ will vision betrue poet does.