Product Description

This edition is the new volume of di Prima's classic Revolutionary Letters. There are some new pieces added in, and new edits on older pieces, done by the author. A new expanded edition of Loba (twice as long as the 1978 Wingbow Press edition) was published in the Penguin Poets series in August 1998. Her autobiographical memoir, Recollections of My Life as a Woman, was published by Viking in April 2001.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #735072 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

About the Author
Diane di Prima is the author of 35 books of poetry and prose, including Pieces of a Song (City Lights, 1990). Her work has been translated into at least twenty languages. She has received grants for her poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1993, she received an Award for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry from the National Poetry Association.

Customer Reviews

"All love is revolution"
Ranging from cutting political literalness to heart-bending humanness, these letters comprise a solid coming-of-age volume. Their greatest power comes from a question that recurs in different forms throughout: Why Not? Why not stop driving and plant flowers in cars? Why not love like crazy? Why not live your visions? Even though I now more frequently read the likes of Mary Oliver, it is this spirit of *everything as raw potential* that I so admire in Di Prima.

It is definitely a timepiece, infused with the energy of a 1960's-formed consciousness (that speaks against nuclear weapons, deforestation, police brutality, capitalism, and of course touts revolution, with touches of eastern philosophy), but a timepiece that stands vibrant. The issues Di Prima addresses are still relevant today, though it is harder to see them through the eyes of clear hope with which she writes. But again, therein lies her power.

Additionally, as one of the few published female poets emerging with the beatniks, I think it is important to give her lines a read. Yes, she can pound out that characteristic beatnik rant (though she never goes on to the extent of Ginsberg), but she can also sing a soft pulse that de-cynifies the imagination, reminds us of the dream at the heart of dreams, and revels in Life.