Great Regulars: [Patti] Smith, of course, started out

as a writer, releasing small press editions of her poetry ("Seventh Heaven," "Witt," "The Night," "Ha! Ha! Houdini") throughout the 1970s. Her first major collection of poetry, "Babel," appeared in 1978; more recently, she has published "The Coral Sea" (1996) and "Auguries of Innocence" (2005), which takes its title from the work of William Blake.

Indeed, her initial foray into music came at her first reading, in February 1971. "I did it for poetry," she writes in "Just Kids." "I did it for Rimbaud, and I did it for Gregory [Corso]. I wanted to infuse the written word with the immediacy and frontal attack of rock and roll."

from David L. Ulin: Los Angeles Times: Critic's Notebook: Patti Smith shines between art's boundaries

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