Patti Smith Wrote a Poem About Suitcases
Pack your bags
Patti Smith, the musician and alleged memoirist most famous for popularizing the idea that New York is not what it used to be, has released a new poem, and for once it is not just the word “us” scribbled on a Polaroid photo of an unmade bed. Indeed, the Just Kids author has taken a break from her award-winning lifelong project of romanticizing a single five-year period of her life to romanticize $1000 German suitcases instead.
The “poet laureate of punk rock” headlines an ad campaign for the luxury luggage brand RIMOWA — also featuring Rihanna, LeBron James, and Roger Federer — meant to “usher in the next chapter of travel," according to Anomaly Berlin creative director Sebastian Lyman. And it appears the next chapter of travel is absolutely loaded with symbolism.
We long to explore.
We long for new sights.
New noise.
Unknown faces.
Unentered doors.
A pyramid.
These are all images Smith contemplates with the hard-won wisdom of a woman who once dated a gay guy, in between snapshots of train stations and the Statue of Liberty, which can finally welcome back international travelers and their RIMOWA Cabin suitcases in colors like “saffron gloss” and “cactus.”
A towering spiral.
An ancient gaze.
The muscular history of past civilizations.
The face of justice.
I too see the face of justice in the luscious grooves of the $1,870 RIMOWA Trunk Plus, which is also available in “mars.”
We are ready.
To break through barriers.
To don our coats.
To gather provisions.
To reclaim motion.
To see with new eyes.
The familiar.
And the strange.
New pages for our story.
The unceasing turning of the leaves of life.
The night may belong to lovers, but the world belongs to all of us, and thanks to the RIMOWA “business trip ready” Essential Sleeve Collection, we can finally start exploring it.
