Patti Smith – “star fever” (1973)

February 17, 2009 at 9:43 pm (Patti Smith, Poetry & Literature, Todd Rundgren)

From a copy of Todd Rundgren’s 1973 album A Wizard, A True Star, which included a Patti “Band-Aid” poem. It’s 3-1/4″ by 12-1/2″, the background was a pinkish bandaid, and the poem was printed in green ink, in her handwriting…

star fever

     by patti smith

They can not harm me
They can not harm me
They can only
burn out my eyes
beat my limbs
black and blue
legs cant run
hands cant play
face cant sing
cant sing cant say
They can not harm me
They can only
turn in my eyes
rip out my teeth
spit pure ivory
carve my face like a clock
alarm me clock clock me
bleed me scape goat me
chain me to a rock me
rock me rock me
clever as a fox me
brand a star on/my left shoulder
a star on my left
clever as a fox
my spirit lights
behind the boulder
holding to my name forever
Knowing I’ll go on forever
Spirit laughing free as water
in a ring of fire
with its hair aflame

---

Notes on the actual print of this poem…

Looking at the pink “bandaid” print, there is a drawing in it of a woman,
hair aflame, behind a boulder. There is writing above her that says:

 

revenge is golden. silence is shit.
His wing

On the boulder is written:

 

His wing
his lightning

boulder

star

Then down below it says:

 

aflame