Patti and Virginia

Working my way through Patti Smith's Auguries of Innocence, I discovered one poem, about the invasion of Iraq, which stuck out. Of course "Birds of Iraq" stuck out because Smith uses mythical imagery to tie the invasion of Iraq into the suicide of Virginia Woolf.

I find it amazingly interesting that Smith chose to intertwine the two. Her use of language is plain and straight forward, yet there exists a kind of blue aura over everything. All of her poetry is like this, but I couldn't help focusing on this poem.

This isn't the first time that Patti Smith has used the story of Virigina Woolf. On YouTube, there is a video of Smith reading (with musical accompaniment) from Woolf's The Waves (which is also mentioned in "Birds of Iraq."

Link to Patti Smith reading from The Waves:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UzS0dwuuHg

J.