I sat on my patio, wrapped in a blanket…when I noticed that my room was not on the ground floor but on the subfloor beneath, making it closer to the edge where the beach began…I turned on the radio and Nina Simone was singing I Put a Spell on You.  The seals were silent, and I could hear the waves in the distance, winter on the West Coast. I sank into bed and slept heavily.

~ Patti Smith, Year of the Monkey (Alfred A. Knopf, September 24, 2019)

Photo: Dream Inn Santa Cruz, CA by Angelo DeSantis