Patti's snaps from the M Train

[just mercedes]

10
 
three white fans two white skylights
white muslim drapes
solitary radiance
anywhere
 
20
 
sun slipped contraband
stripped and shackled
white gloves surrender
black coffee blue butterfly
 
30
 
lines invoking slaughter
glowing bookcase carved in bone
cold red sequined minidress
minutes deflating silver
 
40
 
iron rods resting miles
from the western edge
aesthetic holy grail delivered
figurehead girl with golden hair
 
50
 
a sealskin coat cracks floats away
ice tilts on the back of a whale
Icelandic pony brown the last
not lost moment mercifully
 
60
 
hard opportunity crazier than my conscience
glass of honesty by the elevator
floral bedspreads a worthy dialogue
impossible elderberry water close-up
 
70
 
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
 
80
 
a little red house on the side of Norway
translucent tentacles fron a jellyfish’s bell
red rosebuds in the series of plankton
float in memory disappear in time
 
90
 
high fever navy blue and orange
speed ahead long-legged and free
a code word solemn knobs
entering our three-way portal
 
100
 
portal too sacred to fill
no time to wait forever
guuided by the page paper battle
at the end a grave
 
110
 
pearls drop scales of sorrow
water congregating frenzied
sugar grass cracked leaves
heaven not earth revolutionary
 
120
 
slain child left to rot in junkyard
moon spotlight on laughter
breeze exploding unscathed
rinsed out hanging pulled into sleep
 
130
 
strip hull scour cabin wax and polish wood
broken resources rare thing covered
with a tarp a piano sonata
rain steadily falling
 
140
 
mountain cliff a prayer a weapon
toss it away without flinching
empty sad paperback mascot
stone and book what did it mean
 
150
 
power and destruction boardwalk gone
gone motion roads closed wind strong
I flew to Madrid bus to Valencia
a restaurant called Juanita a mirror
 
160
 
quenching thirst a poet gave me years ago
a gift without hesitation or regret
I lost everything to protect me
in this short span it disappeared
 
170
 
rusting barges a dream silence
time grew closer where I live aloud
flannel shirts slightly musty held
by a green silk headscarf hung to dry
 
180
 
itinerary first dinner much sake
special soba solitude severed
an aspirin graves temples in the snow
correspond with my desires
 
190
 
white-cloaked mountain catastrophic sadness
a thousand paper cranes rice fields unyielding
a million fish carcasses rotting bitter cold
how to take a picture of nothing
 
200
 
by the sea where salt winds spiral
a notebook ribbon a cotton sock
Gothic ruins by the grave
a rare peace Spanish pilgrims
 
210
 
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
 
220
 
Paul Bowles Tangiers 1997
 
230
 
Fathers Day Lake Ann Michigan
 
240
 
shedding shroud linen strips of hell
a Flemish Madonna who slept with the devil
the lost are found the dead
lifted into the arms of light
 
250
 
Virginia Woolfe’s walking stick
 
 
 
 
 (a 'found' poem from 'M Train' Patti Smith
 
 
 
 
 
 

[CRNDLSM]

This is neat, made me want to read the book. What do you mean by found? I'm interpreting this as you reading the book on a train, every ten minutes taking a poetic snapshot of your surroundings in relation to what you're reading.

[just mercedes]

This is neat, made me want to read the book.  What do you mean by found? I'm interpreting this as you reading the book on a train, every ten minutes taking a poetic snapshot of your surroundings in relation to what you're reading.

The poem was 'found' or lifted word(or phrase) from every tenth page of the text of Patti's book M Train. She's a keen photographer, so I tried to give 'snapshots' of the events in the book, hoping it would all come together to feel like glimpses from a train - disconnected but part of the same journey. Sort of. I think it worked, for you at least.

Thanks for reading - I can't add anything (I set myself strict rules!) but I can keep eliminating ...