Devotion (Why I Write)

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Crawford, Anwen (October 6, 2015). "The Theology of Patti Smith". The New Yorker . Retrieved June 1, 2017.

Patti Smith’s ‘Devotion’ — equal parts exasperating and

Patti Smith to receive Washington University International Humanities Prize". The Source | Washington University in St. Louis. January 27, 2020 . Retrieved January 31, 2020.Devotion is short enough to devour at one enjoyable sitting and thought-provoking enough to deserve re-reading.”—Suzi Feay, Financial Times Perhaps what Devotion teaches us most easily is the virtue of hubris: “But slowly I discerned a familiar shift in my concentration. That compulsion that prohibits me from completely surrendering to a work of art, drawing me from the halls of a favored museum to my own drafting table. […] That is the decisive power of a singular work: a call to action. And I, time and again, am overcome with the hubris to believe I can answer that call” (92). It’s hubris to write a short story in answer to the call in one’s heart. It’s hubris moreover to analyze one’s own short story for signs of the writerly. Of course, as the critic, to comment on her commentary about her own story is a feat that takes place at a dizzying distance. In our human folly, we realize we have hardly any choice — for the world is right there around us, and how dare we not respond to it? Theater Review: The Proudly Woke “Some Like It Hot” Musical Is a Genuine Blast Some Like It Hot is a terrifically entertaining – and t... posted on January 3, 2023 Patti Smith's Gloria inspired Madonna". Yahoo! News. April 17, 2012. Archived from the original on June 27, 2012 . Retrieved June 10, 2012. This is what Smith does to her devoted readers—she provokes memory, isolation, and the desire to make something out of the mundane. . . . Devotion, though a departure from her previous books, does not deviate from Smith’s remarkable gift.”—Jerilyn Jordan, Detroit Metro Times

DEVOTION | Kirkus Reviews DEVOTION | Kirkus Reviews

The priest had been kind but could not draw her out. Instead she chose to tell her story in the greater church, the green cathedral that is nature. For nature too is holy, more holy than the icons, more holy than the relics of saints. These were dead things compared to the most insignificant living thing. The fox knows this, and the deer, and the pine.”Later in 1969, Smith performed one night in Cowboy Mouth, [23] a play she co-wrote with Sam Shepard. The published play's notes call for "a man who looks like a coyote and a woman who looks like a crow". She wrote several poems about Shepard and her relationship with him, including "for sam shepard" [24] and "Sam Shepard: 9 Random Years (7 + 2)", that were published in Angel City, Curse of the Starving Class & Other Plays (1976). A triptych of compact, heartfelt essays on discovery, solitude and writing.”—Darragh McManus, Irish Independent By turns allegorical, metaphysical, fictional and factual, Devotion shows rather than tells what it means to give a life to writing. A master of poetic innovation, Smith takes her style to the next level in this slim volume."--Katherine Cooper, Hyperallergic