Iconic musician and poet Patti Smith has paid her respects to her friend, playwright Sam Shepard, who passed away due to complications in his fight with ALS last Thursday. Smith herself was present at the time in Shepard’s life when he became stricken with the disease. In the piece, Smith recalls a trip they made to Ireland, visiting Shepard’s favourite Dublin pub, and the impact that the works of Irish authors, particularly Samuel Beckett, had on his own writing. “In the winter of 2012, we met up in Dublin, where he received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Trinity College. He was often embarrassed by accolades but embraced this one, coming from the same institution where Samuel Beckett walked and studied. He loved Beckett, and had a few pieces of writing, in Beckett’s own hand, framed in the kitchen, along with pictures of his kids. That day, we saw the typewriter of John Millington Synge and James Joyce’s spectacles, and, in the night, we joined musicians at Sam’s favourite local pub, the Cobblestone, on the other side of the river. As we playfully staggered across the bridge, he recited reams of Beckett off the top of his head.”
Smith writes of the inspiration she herself received from Shepard, and marvels at the power of his writing. A segment of the article reads, “Sam promised me that one day he’d show me the landscape of the Southwest, for though well-travelled, I’d not seen much of our own country. But Sam was dealt a whole other hand, stricken with a debilitating affliction. He eventually stopped picking up and leaving. From then on, I visited him, and we read and talked, but mostly we worked. Laboring over his last manuscript, he courageously summoned a reservoir of mental stamina, facing each challenge that fate apportioned him. Going over a passage describing the Western landscape, he suddenly looked up and said, “I’m sorry I can’t take you there.” I just smiled, for somehow he had already done just that.”
You can read the full tribute here.