The Coral Sea [Hardcover]

Patti Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1996

A tribute to photographer Robert Mapplethorpe by his friend Patti Smith, these poems tell the story of the passenger "M", on a journey to see the Southern Cross, who is reflecting on his life and fighting the illness that is consuming him. The narrative is accompanied by 13 of Mapplethorpe's photographs. Metaphorical and dreamy, this tale of transformation arises from the author's knowledge of Mapplethorpe as a young man and as a mature artist, his close friendship with his patron, Sam Wagstaff, his years surviving AIDS, and his death. Patti Smith shared a friendship with him for over two decades. She was Mapplethorpe's first model, they collaborated on a film, "Still Moving", and had a joint exhibition of their work at the Robert Miller Gallery in 1978. In this tribute, she recasts her grief to recapture Mapplethorpe's life in the past and his future in his art.

Editorial Reviews

Review

After Thoughts
An Auctioned Heart
A Bed Of Roses
Crux
The Herculean Moth
Imago
Light Play
Magua
Monkeyshines
Music: A Woman
The Passenger M
The Pedestal
Rank And File
The Solomon Islands
Staff Of Life
The Throw
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

She was once our savage Rimbaud, but suffering has turned her into our St. John of the Cross, a mystic full of compassion. -- Edmund White --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Patti Smith is a poet, performer, visual artist, and author of the National Book Award-winning memoir Just Kids. She has twelve albums, has had numerous gallery shows, and continues to give concerts of her music and poetry. Her books include Early Work, The Coral Sea, Witt, Babel, Auguries of Innocence, Woolgathering, Land 250, Trois, and many others. She lives in New York. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 72 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (June 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393039080
• ISBN-13: 978-0393039085
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 8.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #653,207 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Staggeringly beautiful and elegantly restrained., November 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Coral Sea (Hardcover)

This gorgeous elegaic tribute to Mapplethorpe, to the enduring and transforming power of Love, is like a drop of purest gold that will work quiet alchemy in your spirit; elegant, restrained, and all the more powerful for the subtle discipline Ms Smith brings - as ever - to her heartfelt poems and meditations. We're privileged to share this healing, necessary work. Staggering and Beautiful.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous lush prose/poem, July 9, 2002

By 

A. Hogan (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Coral Sea (Paperback)

Patti Smith his come aways since HORSES. Or maybe not very far at all. Lurking beneath the poet/punk of the famous mapplethorp cover was a woman of profoundly mystical bent. In this, a fable and an elegy , for Robert as she writes in the dedication, Patti smith imagines a man searching for the southern cross, and a man dying. Each of the very short capters are accompanied by a mapplethorpe photograph. Profound, wrenching prose, which caused me to wince in pain and recognition, and ultimately, which delivers a coda to a life. This is amazing stuff, the kind of book that should be passed to loved ones wrapped in a ribbon of silk,, cherished as a gift. It is that good. It moved me like few books have in my life.Nothing in Patti smiths work had prepared me for the overwhelming beauty of this book. A staggering book of wonder.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars patti smith -an artist and her book, May 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Coral Sea (Paperback)

when i first heard 'horses' by patti smith,i thoght it was the most sublime artwork to inwade my little pretentious arty world;i thought it was better than sex, masturbation,writing or even drinking - my whole life had been transposed. yet, in years that came, patti had found away to transcend even the beauty of the actual physical existence she so celebrated w/ her life, her art, the people she loved;the little girl of vivid dreams growing into a youg poetess,into a visionary artist, a wife, a mother - the seclusion embraced by chosing domesticy only proppeling her to mature as an artist and a person; robbert mapplethorpe had been a dear friend who helped her to find her true calling - art;his gift had been taken from us all too soon by aids. she could not weep so she wrote her sorrow : about passenger m who, terminally ill, sets on his last journey, a pilgrimage to see the southern cross;in his last days he questions his life which had been beautiful and which he adorned w/ his gift of the perfect placement of things; it had not been a perfect life however- he was unable to find a balance beetween his desire for perfection and the actual life itself; thus he was dying alone, his last wish to see his ideal the southern cross: perhaps in his mind he had failed to be what he wished, but his passing away was beautiful and he left behind his art to light the way of those treading after him, us. pattis work tells us about the inner struggle of the artist, she describes robbert as an artist (no matter what else he might have been),inducing us to believe in the power and importance of art in our life; her book is a loving elegie to her friend, her beloved compeer, her unfettered joy. leena spite.