Notebook
– for Robert Frank
today 9/9 – on his passing day
Der Fotograf und Filmregisseur Robert Frank mit seiner Ehefrau, der Künstlerin June Leaf, Polaroid von Patti
Notebook
by Patti Smith
I keep trying to figure out what it means
to be an American. When I look in myself
I see arabia, venus, nineteenth-century
french but I can’t recognize what
makes me american. I think about
Robert Frank’s photographs—broke down
jukeboxes in gallup, new mexico…
swaying hips and spurs… ponytails and
syphilitic cowpokes. I think about a
red, white and blue rag I wrap around
my pillow. Maybe it’s nothing material
maybe it’s just being free.
Freedom is a waterfall, is pacing
linoleum till dawn, is the right to
write the wrong words. And I done
plenty of that…
Patti rezitiert ihr Gedicht Notebook in der Neuen Nationalgalerie in Berlin, 2023.
Das Gedicht Notebook schrieb Patti im April 1971. Es wurde in ihrer Gedichtsammlung Early Work (1970-1979) im Jahr 1994 veröffentlicht.