What do you think?
Rate this book
The Coral Sea
"Through these poems, a singular, glowing vision of Robert Mapplethorpe develops and emerges. In The Coral Sea , Patti Smith (in the words of Tennessee Williams) 'rings the bell of pure poetry.' "―William S. Burroughs In linked pieces Patti Smith tells the story of a man on a journey to see the Southern Cross, who is reflecting on his life and fighting the illness that is consuming him. Metaphoric and dreamy, this tale of transformation arises from Smith's knowledge of Mapplethorpe as a young man and as a mature artist, his close relationship with his patron and friend, Sam Wagstaff, and his years surviving AIDS and his ascent into death. Rich in detail, it is filled with references to Mapplethorpe's work and shows the man beneath the persona. Set against photographs by Mapplethorpe, the work emerges as a hymn, a prayer, a fable wishing him Godspeed on his latest journey.
"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
"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
72 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
119 people are currently reading
6192 people want to read
About the author
Patti Smith
148 books13.7k followersPATTI 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.
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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 258 reviews
April 30, 2017
"When he passed away I could not weep so I wrote. Then I took the pages and set them away. Here are those pages, my farewell to my friend, my adventure, my unfettered joy".
A reflection on the life of her friend Robert Mapplethorpe, written in poetic prose by the great Patti Smith, one of the most diversely talented women in the world today.
A reflection on the life of her friend Robert Mapplethorpe, written in poetic prose by the great Patti Smith, one of the most diversely talented women in the world today.
January 15, 2023
beautiful and brilliant as always but not my fave patti smith's
October 21, 2016
Review to come.
December 30, 2014
This is a most beautiful book, perfect in its own way, Patti Smith's poetic elegy for her friend, onetime lover and soulmate Robert Mapplethorpe, interspersed with a selection of his photographs, like meditations. As a writer, I'm in awe. The prologue sets the tone and the scene, with Morpheus, 'from a place apart' regarding his charge - 'a young man asleep within the cloth of a voyage, which is turning, ever so slowly, even as the widening skirt of an ecstatic.'
April 4, 2018
A perda enquanto temperatura. Enquanto não apenas frio. Enquanto coisa quente, na verdade. Pelo menos, na mestria humanista de Patti Smith.
April 28, 2022
the way patti understood robert is so touching
Read
July 14, 2023〝in his heartlessness he had ignored nature, and how heartless nature was in return.〞
I always say that poetry is hard because it's really subjective and sadly this just wasn't for me. what I truly love is lyrical poetry and I would say this almost reads more like short stories. it's not hard to read and it's easy to understand so I still think it's an interesting read just to get even more context in the whole of smith's biography and thought process. I find her mind so interesting and I'm gonna read everything she's ever written just to try and understand it to the fullest. I really appreciate that this still gave me something even though the style of poetry wasn't for me.
ig: @winterrainreads
I always say that poetry is hard because it's really subjective and sadly this just wasn't for me. what I truly love is lyrical poetry and I would say this almost reads more like short stories. it's not hard to read and it's easy to understand so I still think it's an interesting read just to get even more context in the whole of smith's biography and thought process. I find her mind so interesting and I'm gonna read everything she's ever written just to try and understand it to the fullest. I really appreciate that this still gave me something even though the style of poetry wasn't for me.
ig: @winterrainreads
Read
September 7, 2020La primera vez que le vi, Robert dormía. Estaba de pie frente a él, un chico de veinte años que, al percibir mi presencia, abrió los ojos y sonrió. Con unas pocas palabras, se convirtió en mi amigo, mi compañero, mi amada aventura (...)
Cuando murió, no podía llorar, así que me puse a escribir. Al terminar guardé las páginas. Aquí están esas páginas, mi adiós a mi amigo, mi aventura, mi desatada alegría
¿pero quién cantará sobre él?
¿quién cantará sobre su beatitud?
el ojo sin culpa, la sonrisa radiante
pues él, su propio mensajero, se ha ido
ha atravesado el espejo de Orfeo
para vagar eternamente
en busca de la perfección
con estrellas tatuadas en sus azules tobillos
March 25, 2022
The most gorgeous elegy - silver waves of sorrow and golden clouds of pain and joy and life leaving. Her words, as always, like gems strewn upon the age. This destroyed me utterly and filled me with light.
I will read this over and over and over again. Cosmic giant sigh.
I will read this over and over and over again. Cosmic giant sigh.
January 31, 2017
What a touching way to cope with the parting of a beloved person. If I knew more about the Mapplethorpe's background, I think I would understand some of the references better but still, those were some amazing prose poems. Everyone who reads this, I presume, secretly wishes that they will lead such a life, and that they will touch other people's lives in such a way, that they will one day become the subjects of a similarly moving and sensitive literary homage.
December 19, 2022
3.5 / 5 — beautiful as always. patti never misses!
June 1, 2022
the coral sea is an elegy. but it’s also an ode, an unsent love letter almost, to patti smith’s long time friend and once lover, robert mapplethorpe. this book broke me, stitched me back up, only to break me again. i was completely enamoured by the story of their lifetime together in just kids. from the moment they met, to their time together, to mapplethorpe’s death, smith recollect those precious moments into a somewhat fictionalised elegy that is woven with intense grief and yet there is something absolutely beautiful in between that existing darkness. they’re forever platonic soulmates and truly, to have such people in your life is truly a gift that is a once in a lifetime thing. you’ll never encounter someone quite like them once they’re gone and the grief that’ll settle in is unlike any other. i can only imagine the state that patti was in, to be there for robert until his last breath. their bond is unbreakable from the beginning to the end and that is what i simply adore of them. patti smith never fails to mix the art of literature with life and as always, i’d read anything this woman write in a heartbeat.
July 29, 2010
Absolutely beautiful.
I think, having recently read Just Kids and knowing a little about her story and Robert's it was even more poignant.
I borrowed this book from the library, but will be buying several copies - one for myself and a few for gifts. Ms. Smith's writing consistently liquefies me.
For example, from The Pedestal (pg. 56) Such tears filled him with revulsion. No one could enter a soul composed of tears, for one would surely drown.
I recommend this without reservation to anyone who enjoys words that paint pictures.
I think, having recently read Just Kids and knowing a little about her story and Robert's it was even more poignant.
I borrowed this book from the library, but will be buying several copies - one for myself and a few for gifts. Ms. Smith's writing consistently liquefies me.
For example, from The Pedestal (pg. 56) Such tears filled him with revulsion. No one could enter a soul composed of tears, for one would surely drown.
I recommend this without reservation to anyone who enjoys words that paint pictures.
May 25, 2023
“And it occurred to him, at this place, having no heir, no beloved, that he was alone. And he must be to himself his own son and his own father and his own companion. To love and to elevate oneself as a god pressing against the blue and burning into form.”
May 29, 2021
I adore Patti Smith. What more can I say?
October 24, 2019
A remembrance in poetry of Robert Mapplethorpe.
Poetry Review: The Coral Sea is a collection of Patti Smith's writing about the memory of Robert Mapplethorpe who passed in 1989, up to that point in time (1996). I read the revised version published in 2012, which added more poems to the original edition. It consists of a preface to his book Flowers, a poem for his memorial, and a sequence of prose poems that tell "our story." The collection is well illustrated by both their photographs. As such, it's something of a prequel to her memoir Just Kids (2010), the story of their struggling young "ambitious artists" days in New York City. I'd suggest, however, reading it after if interested. Elegy seems to bring out the creator in Patti Smith. On her groundbreaking, combining punk with poetry, first album Horses (cover photo taken by Mapplethorpe) she included an "Elegie" for Jimi Hendrix. In her three memoirs she recollected Mapplethorpe (Just Kids), her husband Fred "Sonic" Smith (M Train, 2015) and Sam Shepard and Sandy Pearlman (Year of the Monkey, 2019). The Coral Sea is Smith's poetic remembrance, Just Kids is her memoir of the same. The latter is the stronger work, which led me to wonder if memoir is the natural outcome of what Smith calls "the dried-up-poet syndrome." So much of poetry comes from an author's own life. If as one ages it becomes harder "to make it new," is not memoir, which also flows directly from one's own life not a natural avenue to channel those creative but now maybe less energetic impulses? I know of no poet to compare Smith with, from which she sprang. She is in love with images, she sees all, images and elements appear, vanish, then reappear in another poem, repeating words and images tightly interwoven throughout the book. The poems are visual, but she hears the sounds of her poems, every poem is capable of being read aloud. No, not just read aloud, declaimed, orated, spoken from a stage. Even sung, even danced. The whole is a metaphoric voyage with people from their lives given new identities. She has a fearless poet's soul, is afraid of no combination of words, willing to write a "reign of tears" or "tiny arrows burning with the seductive poison of love" or "only Cupid in mischievous sleep could muster. And only M in cruel awakening could master." Many poets are far too cool to write those words, but Smith's poetry is fiery, rich, not cool. One line is "No one could enter a soul composed of tears, for one would surely drown." To me those words succeed and fail on several levels. Some favorites are "After Thoughts" and "The Herculean Moth." From these poems I get less a sense of who Robert Mapplethorpe was than who Patti Smith thought he was or what he was to her, for she seems to inhabit his skin in these lines, at times it's unclear where Smith begins or Mapplethorpe ends. She writes of him warts and all, confident that he transcends earthly flaws, traits, and peccadilloes. For her they both needed and collected amulets, tokens, talismans, touchstones, relics and ritual, objects with meaning, myth, and magic. Everything is visceral, tactile, texture. She runs more to emotion, but there is food for the intellect here also. In the final analysis the poems in The Coral Sea are heartfelt, honest in their fanciful way, with a meaning that Smith understands more than anyone. There are many personal and opaque references. For instance in the last line of the book she writes "commending these same wings beneath the folding arms of the deaconess of his soul"; Mapplethorpe died in Deaconess Hospital. For what is infinitely intimate to her, she gently and generously allows us to see through the door she's opened. [3½★]
Poetry Review: The Coral Sea is a collection of Patti Smith's writing about the memory of Robert Mapplethorpe who passed in 1989, up to that point in time (1996). I read the revised version published in 2012, which added more poems to the original edition. It consists of a preface to his book Flowers, a poem for his memorial, and a sequence of prose poems that tell "our story." The collection is well illustrated by both their photographs. As such, it's something of a prequel to her memoir Just Kids (2010), the story of their struggling young "ambitious artists" days in New York City. I'd suggest, however, reading it after if interested. Elegy seems to bring out the creator in Patti Smith. On her groundbreaking, combining punk with poetry, first album Horses (cover photo taken by Mapplethorpe) she included an "Elegie" for Jimi Hendrix. In her three memoirs she recollected Mapplethorpe (Just Kids), her husband Fred "Sonic" Smith (M Train, 2015) and Sam Shepard and Sandy Pearlman (Year of the Monkey, 2019). The Coral Sea is Smith's poetic remembrance, Just Kids is her memoir of the same. The latter is the stronger work, which led me to wonder if memoir is the natural outcome of what Smith calls "the dried-up-poet syndrome." So much of poetry comes from an author's own life. If as one ages it becomes harder "to make it new," is not memoir, which also flows directly from one's own life not a natural avenue to channel those creative but now maybe less energetic impulses? I know of no poet to compare Smith with, from which she sprang. She is in love with images, she sees all, images and elements appear, vanish, then reappear in another poem, repeating words and images tightly interwoven throughout the book. The poems are visual, but she hears the sounds of her poems, every poem is capable of being read aloud. No, not just read aloud, declaimed, orated, spoken from a stage. Even sung, even danced. The whole is a metaphoric voyage with people from their lives given new identities. She has a fearless poet's soul, is afraid of no combination of words, willing to write a "reign of tears" or "tiny arrows burning with the seductive poison of love" or "only Cupid in mischievous sleep could muster. And only M in cruel awakening could master." Many poets are far too cool to write those words, but Smith's poetry is fiery, rich, not cool. One line is "No one could enter a soul composed of tears, for one would surely drown." To me those words succeed and fail on several levels. Some favorites are "After Thoughts" and "The Herculean Moth." From these poems I get less a sense of who Robert Mapplethorpe was than who Patti Smith thought he was or what he was to her, for she seems to inhabit his skin in these lines, at times it's unclear where Smith begins or Mapplethorpe ends. She writes of him warts and all, confident that he transcends earthly flaws, traits, and peccadilloes. For her they both needed and collected amulets, tokens, talismans, touchstones, relics and ritual, objects with meaning, myth, and magic. Everything is visceral, tactile, texture. She runs more to emotion, but there is food for the intellect here also. In the final analysis the poems in The Coral Sea are heartfelt, honest in their fanciful way, with a meaning that Smith understands more than anyone. There are many personal and opaque references. For instance in the last line of the book she writes "commending these same wings beneath the folding arms of the deaconess of his soul"; Mapplethorpe died in Deaconess Hospital. For what is infinitely intimate to her, she gently and generously allows us to see through the door she's opened. [3½★]
April 25, 2024
gosto de acreditar que não existe tal coisa como o destino. na maioria das vezes, nós somos os donos do nosso próprio caminho… mas sempre que me deparo com a história da patti e do robert, é difícil pensar que seja sempre assim. algumas pessoas são realmente destinadas a se cruzarem em algum momento da vida.
“últimas palavras” lindamente escritas!! não tem como não se emocionar, eles foram almas gêmeas de verdade. ❣️❣️
“for M had departed the hold of the Coral Sea and invested destiny by fixing his great wings upon her bosom, commending these same wings beneath the folding arms of the deaconess of his soul.”
“últimas palavras” lindamente escritas!! não tem como não se emocionar, eles foram almas gêmeas de verdade. ❣️❣️
“for M had departed the hold of the Coral Sea and invested destiny by fixing his great wings upon her bosom, commending these same wings beneath the folding arms of the deaconess of his soul.”
August 12, 2012
I read "Just Kids", now I need more Patti.
Update: I finished reading "The coral sea" a few days ago. I read it in spanish. I was beautiful and poetic, but hardly a story.
It's not like I expected it to be one, but it surprised me for the best how each chapter was a beautiful piece of art in itself.
You could read them separately and you would still get the most inspired and inspiring images.
I reacomend it as a poetry book, not a follow up to "We were kids" (Pattis Smith's previously released book on her relationship with late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe).
Update: I finished reading "The coral sea" a few days ago. I read it in spanish. I was beautiful and poetic, but hardly a story.
It's not like I expected it to be one, but it surprised me for the best how each chapter was a beautiful piece of art in itself.
You could read them separately and you would still get the most inspired and inspiring images.
I reacomend it as a poetry book, not a follow up to "We were kids" (Pattis Smith's previously released book on her relationship with late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe).
January 6, 2023
I think Patti Smith is incredible, I also think that if my vocabulary was wider, I'd enjoy it better 😭 there were lots of parts I loved, her the way she wrote M, the way she described his innermost thoughts, but there were also many times I had to pull out google translate💔 it's not Patti's fault, it's mine, the experience became exhausting because I couldn't enjoy what I couldn't fully understand.
I absolutely recommend this to lovers of poetic literature pieces and if you're looking for a nice short non fiction, but yeah, I'm probably too stupid for this unfortunately.
I absolutely recommend this to lovers of poetic literature pieces and if you're looking for a nice short non fiction, but yeah, I'm probably too stupid for this unfortunately.
April 8, 2016
This collection of poetry is deeply moving, at times too intimate and every word meaningful. Such a treasure to have a friend like this and such a treasure to the rest of the world that she shares her gift of writing. I look forward to reading more.
December 3, 2017
There is no arguing with the fact that Patti Smith can write beautifully. The Coral Sea was a wonderful observation of grief and sickness, but some parts just went over my head. It really is an amazing piece of art, I just didn't understand all of it.
October 29, 2023
Me ha llevado meses acabar este librito. Supongo que es uno de esos que hay que disfrutar poco a poco. Me ha encantado.
December 11, 2024
Si vais a editar poesía o prosa poética traducida, hacedlo siempre BILINGÜE con el texto original al lado.
Amo a Patti -"Oh Patricia, you've always been my North Star"-, Just Kids es un libro fundamental, y aunque sí tiene algún destello de lucidez, este no me ha terminado de convencer. Quizás sea por mi culpa que ahora mismo no tengo la cabeza para tanta abstracción. No del palo "no entiendo la poesía" sino que se me cae la pasta de dientes al suelo del baño y puedo romper a llorar. Todo ridículo. Como dice mi amiga Claudia (te amo) cuando se pone intensa y empieza fotografiar a viejos por la calle: estamos rarunas, café con leche. En fin, chica "Nada te turbe, nada te espante", you go, girl.
"in his heartlessness he had ignored nature, and how heartless nature was in return."
Amo a Patti -"Oh Patricia, you've always been my North Star"-, Just Kids es un libro fundamental, y aunque sí tiene algún destello de lucidez, este no me ha terminado de convencer. Quizás sea por mi culpa que ahora mismo no tengo la cabeza para tanta abstracción. No del palo "no entiendo la poesía" sino que se me cae la pasta de dientes al suelo del baño y puedo romper a llorar. Todo ridículo. Como dice mi amiga Claudia (te amo) cuando se pone intensa y empieza fotografiar a viejos por la calle: estamos rarunas, café con leche. En fin, chica "Nada te turbe, nada te espante", you go, girl.
"in his heartlessness he had ignored nature, and how heartless nature was in return."
December 23, 2021
4.5 stars
I believe that Coral Sea was a photo taken by Robert Mapplethorpe in 1983.... At least that is what I gathered.
It was wonderful but I admit I didn't quite understand all of it, possibly because I've never experienced such a tragedy; because of this I found my own meanings, that I found fascinating. I feel I will read this later on as an adult and understand fully.
My favourite excerpt has got to be the first paragraph of "Light Play" - page 41:
"He was destined to be ill, quite ill, though it was not apparent. Youth alone would seem to account for his feverish spirit, the fever becoming more and more demanding. The romantic garden within him raged with wild bloom, which he plucked and carelessly tossed in every direction. For he was no naturalist - more the archer, spraying arrows in a clearing suddenly sprouting statues. He had conjured a pedestal for his own amusement and he sat upon it and spun around. Art, not nature, moved him. Nature, he had boasted, was meant to be redesigned; opened and folded like a fan."
Possibly because it was the most simplistic section in the whole book, yes I admit, but I just connected with this so bit somehow (and how his views on nature change as his health declines).
One thing I did notice however is that she spoke/wrote quite a lot about the sea, boats and ports, art, nature, pedestals, that green throw, and sleep. Sleep, as if to say how life is peppered necessarily with tastes of rest, but eternally, it is only experienced once.
The edition I read had a different cover to this, which was white with a picture of Mapplethorpe in the centre (black and white of course), the title and Patti's name - but also a black line around the border of the squat rectangle shape that it is printed in.
Because of this layout, I can't help but think if it purposely links to a line in the prose that refered to his illness as "a black box, shrinking in around his self" (or something of the sort as I can't find the exact quote). Or perhaps it was simply design choice.
I believe that Coral Sea was a photo taken by Robert Mapplethorpe in 1983.... At least that is what I gathered.
It was wonderful but I admit I didn't quite understand all of it, possibly because I've never experienced such a tragedy; because of this I found my own meanings, that I found fascinating. I feel I will read this later on as an adult and understand fully.
My favourite excerpt has got to be the first paragraph of "Light Play" - page 41:
"He was destined to be ill, quite ill, though it was not apparent. Youth alone would seem to account for his feverish spirit, the fever becoming more and more demanding. The romantic garden within him raged with wild bloom, which he plucked and carelessly tossed in every direction. For he was no naturalist - more the archer, spraying arrows in a clearing suddenly sprouting statues. He had conjured a pedestal for his own amusement and he sat upon it and spun around. Art, not nature, moved him. Nature, he had boasted, was meant to be redesigned; opened and folded like a fan."
Possibly because it was the most simplistic section in the whole book, yes I admit, but I just connected with this so bit somehow (and how his views on nature change as his health declines).
One thing I did notice however is that she spoke/wrote quite a lot about the sea, boats and ports, art, nature, pedestals, that green throw, and sleep. Sleep, as if to say how life is peppered necessarily with tastes of rest, but eternally, it is only experienced once.
The edition I read had a different cover to this, which was white with a picture of Mapplethorpe in the centre (black and white of course), the title and Patti's name - but also a black line around the border of the squat rectangle shape that it is printed in.
Because of this layout, I can't help but think if it purposely links to a line in the prose that refered to his illness as "a black box, shrinking in around his self" (or something of the sort as I can't find the exact quote). Or perhaps it was simply design choice.
Read
May 28, 2023I love Patti and Robert so much
January 4, 2015
The title piece, a long prose poem, was written in 1996 after the death of Patti Smith's dear friend, the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. This 2012 reissue includes some other poems for him, and a preface he asked her to write for his book, Flowers.
It's the most exquisite and moving work. The use of language is extraordinary — heightened and unusual, yet at the same time clear and straightforward. A paradox!
There is nothing self-consciously writerly about it; rather she is making art, and does so by finding the perfect words to convey her friend's last journey, and something of his soul.
A slim volume, beautifully produced, it includes some of his photos and some of her own.
It's unique. It's a treasure; a work of great beauty.
I can see myself returning to it often.
She recounts that he asked her, when he was dying, to write their story. She eventually did: the acclaimed memoir, Just Kids — but it took her a long time to be able to do it. Meanwhile she wrote The Coral Sea.
It's the most exquisite and moving work. The use of language is extraordinary — heightened and unusual, yet at the same time clear and straightforward. A paradox!
There is nothing self-consciously writerly about it; rather she is making art, and does so by finding the perfect words to convey her friend's last journey, and something of his soul.
A slim volume, beautifully produced, it includes some of his photos and some of her own.
It's unique. It's a treasure; a work of great beauty.
I can see myself returning to it often.
She recounts that he asked her, when he was dying, to write their story. She eventually did: the acclaimed memoir, Just Kids — but it took her a long time to be able to do it. Meanwhile she wrote The Coral Sea.
July 5, 2018
I really like this book specially after reading Just kids and listen to her music.
March 9, 2021
abstract poetry but always with Patti's unique insight
June 9, 2021
soft and sick. ive never known a writer who can paint an image like patti smith.
January 4, 2022
the heart-wrenching way that Patti writes about Robert through poetry in this one is beyond what was seem on Just Kids. complex, beautiful and tragic.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 258 reviews