Diane Di Prima: Revolutionary Letters

Hard to Read will be back on in January (1/29, 9-11pm), inviting poets and readers to share from Diane DiPrima's soon-to-be reissued/expanded Revolutionary Letters (City Lights, Feb 2020) and to share some of their own work as well.

I'm excited for this not only because I'm an admirer of Diane DiPrima's work, but because it's an opportunity to continue exploring the legacies of underrepresented women poets from the Beat Generation (see segment from 8/23/19 in the archive: Ink Cap Press Presents: Iris Cushing on Mary Norbert Korte's life as a poet and ecological activist).

The below poem isn't from Di Prima's Revolutionary Letters, but it's a personal favorite, full of femme tenderness and revolutionary love:

Song for Baby-O, Unborn

Sweetheart
when you break thru
you’ll find
a poet here
not quite what one would choose.

I won’t promise
you’ll never go hungry
or that you won’t be sad
on this gutted
breaking
globe

but I can show you
baby
enough to love
to break your heart
forever