Patti Smith
Lyric guide

Notes To The Future

Read Notes To The Future lyrics by Patti Smith on LyroVerse, with linked artist context and related song paths.

Patti Smith visibility2 visits Video on page
person Curated by Ethan Walker LyroVerse team
Reference snapshot

The page facts to cite before the commentary

Use this page for the lyric text, linked artist context, and any LyroVerse editor's note attached to the song. Listener comments remain user-generated and should not be treated as the primary source.

Page type: lyric reference Artist: Patti Smith Canonical path: /patti-smith/notes-to-the-future Related lyric paths: 6 Video embedded: yes
Lyrics

Notes To The Future

The lyric stays readable and compact here; the note and related paths sit nearby so you do not lose the song while looking for context.

Listen my children and you shall hear

The sound of your own steps

The sound of your hereafter

Memory awaits and turns to greet you

Draping its banner across your wrists

Wake up arms

Delicate feet

For as one to march the streets

Each alone, each part of another

Your steps shall ring

Shall raise the cloud

And they that will hear will hear

Will hear voice of the one

And the one and the one

As it has never been uttered before

For something greater yet to come

Then the hour of the prophets

And their great cities

For the people of Ninevah

Fell to their knees

Heeding the cry of Jonah

United

Covering themselves in sackcloth and ashes

And called to their god

And all their hearts were as one heart.

And all their voices were as one voice.

God heard them and his mind was moved.

Yet something greater will come to pass.

And who will call?

And what will they call?

Will they call to God?

The air?

The fowl?

It will not matter, if the call is true.

They shall call and this is known.

One voice and each another

Shall enter the dead, the living flower,

Enter forms that we know not.

To be felt by sea,

By air,

By earth

And shall be an elemental pledge.

This is our birthright.

This is our charge.

And we have given over to others.

And they have

not

done

well

And the forests mourn.

The leaves fall.

Swaddling babes watch and wonder

As the fathers of our spirit nations

Dance in the street in celebration

As the mountains turn pale from

Their nuclear hand

And they have

not

done

well

Now my children

You must overturn the tables

Deliver the future from material rule

For only one rule should be considered

The eleventh commandment

To love one another

And this is our covenant across your wrist

This offering is yours

To adorn, adore

To bury

To burn

Upon a mound

To hail

To set away

It is merely a cloth,

Merely our colors,

Invested with the blood of the people

All their hopes and dreams.

Our flag

It has its excellence

Yet it is nothing

It shall not be a tyranny above us

Nor should god

Nor love

Nor nature

Yet we hold as our pleasure this tender honor

That we acknowledge the individual

And the common ground formed

And if our cloth be raised and lowered

Half mast

What does it tell us?

That an individual has passed

Is saluted

And mourned by his countrymen.

This ritual extends to us all.

For we are all the individual.

No unknown.

No insignificant one

Nor insignificant labor

Nor insignificant act of charity

Each has a story to be told and retold

Which shall be a glowing thread

In the fabric of Man

And the children shall march

And bring the colors forward

Investing within them

The redeeming blood

Of their revolutionary hearts.

Quick answers

What this page can answer fast

Who performs "Notes To The Future"?

Patti Smith performs "Notes To The Future", and this lyric page sits inside the Patti Smith catalog on LyroVerse.

Are there related songs to explore after "Notes To The Future"?

Yes. The related section below points to Looking For You (I Was) and After The Gold Rush with a short reason for opening each page next.

Where can I find more songs by Patti Smith?

Use the artist link near the top of the page or the related paths section below to keep moving through Patti Smith's lyric pages.

Song Room

Interpretations, questions, and corrections for this song

Interpretations, questions, memories, and correction notes live together here. The room stays noindex while the best insights are reviewed.

Open Song Room
0 followers Selected insights only surface after moderation
Listener comments

What people are saying

0 comments
Add a short interpretation or memory

A strong comment here is specific: the phrase you keep hearing, the mood you come back for, or the reason this song stays in rotation.

Sign in to post the first listener note. Reporting stays open to everyone.

No listener comments on Notes To The Future yet.