I’m listening to Patti Smith’s 1975 debut album Horses as I write this. It’s taking me back to my late teenage days, young and free, yearning for new experiences and inspiration, new heroes, exploring all forms of music, poetry, art, and expression. It’s one of those albums that’s etched fondly into the heart, that left a lasting impression, and that would guide my wandering mind down many different roads with its blend of poetic verse, free jazz, punk, and good old rock n’ roll. Effortlessly cool, of its time, and timeless.
Now Patti Smith—the High Priestess of Punk Poetry, Rock n’ Roll Icon, musician, photographer, and author—presents the paperbook version of A Book of Days. It’s a collection of photographs for each day of the year, accompanied by brief poetic descriptions, heartfelt tributes, historical insights, humor, the celebration of life and the passing of time. It is a compelling mix of photos from the past taken with her Polaroid Land Camera, cellphone photos of the present from her Instagram account, as well as prints from her family’s albums, archival press and public domain, and other accredited and acknowledged photographers.
These images show a wide range of the people, places, and things that have left a lasting impression and impact on her life, as well as the simple beauty of day-to-day random sights and signs, moments frozen in time. In Smith’s own words, “Entries and images are keys to unlocking one’s own thoughts. Each is surrounded with the reverberation of other possibilities. Birthdays acknowledged are prompts for others, including your own. A Paris café is all cafés, just as a gravesite may echo others mourned and remembered…This book is offered in gratitude, as a place to be heartened, even in the basest of times.”
As I paged through A Book of Days, I was reminded of the wonder I felt the first time I listened to Horses, with its soft piano opening, leading into the rocking crescendo chorus of Gloria (G-L-O-R-I-A!). The book grabbed me and took me on a journey to new places and new faces. I was grateful for the introductions and views beyond the curtains, including photos of letters and manuscripts from Arthur Rimbaud and Emily Dickinson, Georgia O’Keefe’s bed, Frida Kahlo’s crutches, Smith’s Abyssinian cat Cairo, her husband’s guitar, her garden. Loving birthday salutes and honorable eulogies for those we know and those we should get to know.
From the writers and poets, artists and musicians, actors and activists who have influenced her to the architecture of cities and the natural wonders of the world, these images and words will keep you intrigued, informed, and inspired, to see and share the world as part of a bigger picture, one page, one day at a time. It’s a brief daily meditation, to take a look through the lens of your own life, the lives around you, and all that you see and hold dear.
Kristian Preylowski and Kari Meutsch co-own and run the Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock.