The New Jerusalem

by Patti Smith

The New Jerusalem is a long prose poem in the tradition of John's Revelation and the poetry of William Blake shows a prophetic vision of art and humanity, faith and freedom; an image of the escape from the rituals of power and the mechanisms of social control. It is published in a beautiful bilingual (English & Dutch) edition with colour illustrations and photographs by Patti Smith. The introduction by Rob Riemen discusses the relationship between art and spirituality in the poem by Patti Smith and in art in a general sense.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction

76 pages, Hardcover

Published May 26, 2018

About the author

PATTI SMITH is a writer, performer, and visual artist. She gained recognition in the 1970s for her revolutionary merging of poetry and rock. She has released twelve albums, including Horses, which has been hailed as one of the top one hundred albums of all time by Rolling Stone.

Smith had her first exhibit of drawings at the Gotham Book Mart in 1973 and has been represented by the Robert Miller Gallery since 1978. Her books include Just Kids, winner of the National Book Award in 2010, Wītt, Babel, Woolgathering, The Coral Sea, and Auguries of Innocence.

In 2005, the French Ministry of Culture awarded Smith the title of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, the highest honor given to an artist by the French Republic. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.

Smith married the musician Fred Sonic Smith in Detroit in 1980. They had a son, Jackson, and a daughter, Jesse. Smith resides in New York City.

Reviews

[Charlotte de Lange · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elk boek dat refereert naar Marcusse is een goed boek.

“Our worldview is determined by technological-material rationality to such an extent that our intellectual world is indeed restricted to a single dimension with its accompanying jargon, devoid of all forms of poetry and spirituality.”

“Concepts like soul, salvation, revelation, forgiveness, eternal beauty, mystery, God, calling, creation- they are no longer words spoken, or, when they are spoken, no longer heard.”

[Gaby · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a teeny tiny short book & let’s be real I’m probably not smart enough right now to understand any of it. But I liked the stylistic choices, the way the theme expands and just the prose itself. Will have to return to this in the future and do a deeper dive.

But!! I got a signed copy of the book at Patti Smith’s gig the other day, and as she is one of my favourite authors as well, I am so glad to have this book in my possession!! <3

[Andrew F · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thirteen years after Auguries of Innocence, Patti Smith has published a new book of poetry. The seven pieces are presented as a single long prose poem on one theme. There is a unifying style, but it can be read equally as a set of separate poems. This has been emphasised by Patti Smith's readings, which have included individual sections of the sequence in isolation or out-of-order. Those familiar with Auguries of Innocence will recognise the author's distinctive voice and her mixture of philosophical musing with dream and autobiography. It should be noted that her later poetry tends to be dissimilar to her more widely known early work from the 1970s. The New Jerusalem repays close reading and is a book to return to.

[Imke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful, but I always have a hard time understanding poetry, which makes me hesitant to give it high ratings. Will have to read it again.

[Rolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strong stylistically, but at least to me it didn’t feel like it had anything compelling to say. Maybe I’ll like her memoirs more.

[ela · Rating 4 out of 5]

big fan!

[Frida · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say.. I love Patti Smith ❤️

[Tiago · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a work of art.

[Stefania · Rating 5 out of 5]

In poche pagine scritte come un poema in prosa, Patti Smith è riuscita ancora una volta a fare della sua arte un bene per l’umanità.

Ce lo racconta Rob Riemen, filosofo e scrittore olandese, fondatore, nel 1994, del Nexus Institute, nato per portare un contrappeso culturale alla società odierna, focalizzata principalmente sui valori della scienza, della tecnologia, e dell’economia, promuovendo la cultura e la filosofia di vita della tradizione umanistica Europea.

Nella sua introduzione, Riemen esprime bene tutto quello che ho provato anche io leggendo i memoirs di Patti Smith, Just Kids, M Train e Devotion.

Quella sensazione di ammirazione for the way she, movingly but unassumingly, had opened up so many of her world to me.

Un mondo di amicizie lunghe una vita. Il mondo della controcultura newyorkese degli anni sessanta e settanta. Il mondo della passione per l’arte, con una nuova musica, una nuova poesia, una nuova forma di pittura. Il mondo di artisti come Arthur Rimbaud, Jean Genet, Albert Camus, William Blake, Sylvia Plath e Frida Kahlo. Il mondo di Rockaway Beach a Long Island, i caffé di Manhattan e il Chelsea Hotel, i luoghi dove il suo spirito creativo ha modellato la sua stessa vita.

La vita di Patti Smith, continua Riemen, può essere riassunta in un unico verso dell’aria Vissi d’arte di Puccini: Ho vissuto per la mia arte, ho vissuto per il mio amore.

The New Jerusalem è un poema in prosa ispirato in parte dalla decisione di Trump di spostare l’ambasciata americana a Gerusalemme, in parte a William Blake e alla sua visione dell’arte, condivisa da Patti Smith, come qualcosa strettamente connesso con la spiritualità. L’arte è qualcosa che, attraverso il potere dell’immaginazione, ci rivela una realtà diversa, un’altra verità un frammento del significato della nostra esistenza.

E’ stata una lettura intensa, completamente coinvolgente. Parole visionarie e vive, suoni e colori che trasportano in un mondo apocalittico, dove in gioco c’è la salvezza dell’umanità.

The New Jerusalem di Patti Smith è un libro che si legge ad occhi chiusi, perché le immagini sono talmente forti da non abbandonarti più. E’ una questione di tempo, non ne è rimasto molto. Dobbiamo sbrigarci, prima che tutti gli agnelli vengano sacrificati e prima di non riuscire più a sentire the voice of the inexhaustible good.

To give a voice. That has been Patti Smith’s calling all her life. To give a voice to what is forgotten, so that it will be known again; to give a voice to what is silenced, so that it will be heard again; to give a voice to what is invisible, so that it will be seen again; to give a voice to what has been rejected, so that it will come into its own again; to give a voice to those who have died, so that they live again; to give a voice to that new Jerusalem so that there may be peace on earth.

THE NEW JERUSALEM – PATTI SMITH
NEXUS INSTITUTE

PREZZO DI COPERTINA: € 21,50 – spese di spedizione comprese sul sito del Nexus Institute

https://www.lcomelibro.it/the-new-jer...

[Juliano · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The night is dotted with constellations, crowned with a band of light, whose galactic center produces the milk of time.” In Patti Smith’s The New Jerusalem — a long poem (published in a bilingual English - Nederlands edition from the Nexus Institute in Amsterdam) inspired by, and falling both between and outside of, the Biblical book of Revelations and the visionary work of William Blake, as well as contemporary Jerusalem and the Israel-Palestine conflict — is yet another eternal testament from Smith to the spirit of creativity and the religious temperament that goes into art. It is, like much of her writing, dreamlike, brimming with vision and the supernatural; her new reconjuring of the world and its inhabitants given all the clarity and colour of a glorious Renaissance painting. And, as ever, Smith’s vision of a new world is one of beauty and wonder, ending on a note of rebirth, hope: “You are born, says a voice. It is the voice... of inexhaustible good.” Rob Riemen’s brief introduction also provides an illuminating contextual look behind the book’s inception and Patti Smith’s process and oeuvre.

[Patty · Rating 2 out of 5]

In his introduction, entitled "Living to Give a Voice", to Patti Smith’s "New Jerusalem" ode, Rob Riemen, founder and president of the Nexus Institute, describes inviting Patti Smith to take part in the 2018 Nexus Sympodium about the New York counterculture as ‘a university of life’. Patti told him to meet her in her cafe. She'll be there writing. And she was. She loves history and was just starting on a poem that would be called The New Jerusalem.

The New Jerusalem, likened itself to the prophesy at the end of “The Revelation of St John” in the new Testament or like the visionary poem “Jerusalem” by by one of Patti's favorite poets, William Blake is what Patti Smith wantd to depict: a vision. Riemen hoped it would be a vision of the counterculture as it manifested itself half a century ago. Patti believed that all art (in all ages) that is worthy of the name "art", is an expression of a counterculture. An artist is a free person. Their greatest tool is the imagination. The ability to make us see what we couldn’t see….reveal and give expression to the invisible and unsayable. Doing this not because they want to be famous and rich but because that is what they love and are good at.

This poem is beyond my miniuscule understanding of many of the lines of Patti's prose style poem but I got the meaning.....the symbols. Perhaps if I had a more well rounded knowledge of deep subjects I would have given it more stars, as many other reviewers did. But I can not be pretentious. It was only through the introduction by Riemen that I even gained the knowledge of the meaning of the title. There is so much that I don't know about so I appreciate being introduced to something new.

I respect Patti Smith in all her many forms....writing, photography, drawing, music, etc. and feel that she reveals to me many things I would not otherwise be able to put into words myself. An example is the photgraph of Smith’s silkscreen print of South Tower Copper which is in this small book. There are no words needed. I get it! I'm glad to have this little treasure to go back to in case I feel I might "get" even more! I bet Patti would be happy to know this.

[Joyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deze bundel werd uitgegeven naar aanleiding van de Nexus-lezing van Patti Smith in 2018. The New Jerusalem, met een voorwoord van Rob Riemen, is een verzameling gedichten met Bijbelse motieven, die voor mij soms moeilijk te volgen waren, aangezien ik weinig bijbelkennis heb. Desondanks ben ik blij de bundel in mijn bezit te hebben: het is een ode aan de kunst als dimensie, als verrijking van de geest. Ik kreeg hem cadeau van iemand, met de handtekening van Patti zelf erin, en dat diegene onthouden had dat ik Patti's schrijfsels echt heel goed vind, dat is eigenlijk het grootste cadeau :-)

[Evelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short book focuses about the intersection of art and faith. Although the prose is lovely, it fails to make any real points about the subject matter. Therefore, it rates 2.5 stars which have been rounded up to 3 stars in recognition of how beautifully the book is designed and laid out.

[Lina · Rating 2 out of 5]

My heart is split with Patti Smith writing: I adore when she writes about herself, her life, about how she writes, but I cannot manage to appreciate her fiction. Something doesn't click for me.

[Christine Hopkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful poems I know I will return to time and time again.

[Lotte Jongmans · Rating 3 out of 5]

i knew this was going to be a short read, but my god that was FAST

[ijunka]

I don't know about this one

[Carly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always a journey to come back to Smith’s words. And it will be a whole different one to return to these ones again someday.

Reading Rush 2020 book #7 - “Read a book that starts with the word ‘The.’”

[Mills College Library]

818.54 S656n 2018