Should I Have Been Patti Smith??????????????????

                                            I mean, how could I, darlings???????????  With my influences??????????

                                            Really, the questions I am asked sometimes are amazing.  I know what my age is, but I don't view myself as old.  But youngsters, I means teens and twenties, obviously do, and sometimes, to be honest, I must say I view them as "petit enfants!!!!!!!!!!"

                                             I had such a generational encounter, when a member of the younger set, perhaps because I was carrying around Garth Risk Hallberg's  "City On Fire," asked if I used to hang out with Patti Smith in the Chelsea Hotel.  I had to laugh, because, while the idea of the Chelsea was appealing, I would certainly not have fit in with that crowd.  For starters, I am not a musician.  While I have a voice, its style is so removed from Patti and the Chelsea crowd that I would not feel comfortable in that world.  Secondly, Patti is a poet; she puts words and lyrics together in a structural, rhythmic fashion I just don't have.  As someone who does write, I have, over time, experimented with poetry.  It hasn't turned up on here, because I instantly knew I did not have the touch.  One either does or doesn't.  Secondly, I did not, even while doing it, enjoy the creation of it, as I do the prose in these posts, or the short stories I have attempted, so if that wasn't enough of an indication, I would have been just plain dumb.  Lastly, when I put the results up against Patti, or Sylvia Plath, or anyone versed in this art form, even I could see the limpness of my results.

                                          I am sure many of us, for experimental reasons or curiousity, attempt things we are not good at, to see what it is like, or to test the waters.  Sometimes, there is surprise success.  But I am as far removed from poetry and Patti Smith as I am from being a day trader on Wall Street!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                           This is the answer I would have given that young one, had both of us had the time.  As it is, I just laughed and said, "It's a nice thought, but you have got to be kidding."

                                            I am more from the school of Sondheim.  The furthest I go with avant-garde is Elizabeth Swados (RIP) and her lyrics from "Runaways," or setting my favorite Sylvia Plath poem, "Daddy," to music.  Within the poetic realm I am more of an appreciator than a creator.

                                            Case in point, I will offer on here what is considered Patti Smith's masterwork, or at least one of then, "Horses."  I acknowledge its talent and brilliance, but, sweeties, it runs nine minutes, and I simply could not get through it.

                                              I am more comfortable with tea at the Plaza, or such, and a string quartet playing Vivaldi.