Pieces of a Song: Selected Poems

Description

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Customer Reviews

Pieces of a Song: Printed Divinity
To say that this collection of poems is "delightful" would be the understatement of the decade. Diane DiPrima quickly knocked her way up to being one of my favorite poets in the space of 5 days (the time it took for me to read this book !). These poems are bohemian and contemporary. They're forlorn in a controlled way, romantic but smirking, and strong willed. DiPrima truly outdid herself penning every word.

2001-03-26 (Georgia) | Helpful Votes: 12 | Rating: 5

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Recollections of My Life as a Woman: The New York Years

Description

In Recollections of My Life as a Woman, Diane di Prima explores the first three decades of her extraordinary life. Born into a conservative Italian American family, di Prima grew up in Brooklyn but broke away from her roots to follow through on a lifelong commitment to become a poet, first made when she was in high school. Immersing herself in Manhattan's early 1950s Bohemia, di Prima quickly emerged as a renowned poet, an influential editor, and a single mother at a time when this was unheard of. Vividly chronicling the intense, creative cauldron of those years, she recounts her revolutionary relationships and sexuality, and how her experimentation led her to define herself as a woman. What emerges is a fascinating narrative about the courage and triumph of the imagination, and how one woman discovered her role in the world.

"This journey of a young Italian American girl, through the minefields of her childhood in Brooklyn to her breakthrough as a liberated female intellectual decades before the modern women's movement began, is never less than honest and resounds with authenticity." (The Washington Post)

"These 'Recollections' are full of light and wonder." (San Francisco Chronicle)

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Customer Reviews

A Must Read
Diane di Prima's "Recollections of My Life as a Woman" is a must read for anyone who loves her poetry. I found it to be incredibly insightful and enjoyable to read. Understanding her life definitely helps demystify some of her poetry, like LOBA, for instance. She is such a diverse writer and woman. Everyone who reads this will benefit from it no matter what.

2008-04-07 (College St, TX) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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The Real Thing!
This is a wonderful book, presenting a brilliant vibrant picture of a cultural movement and time, the Beats/Hippies, and a woman who embodied all the artistic and humanistic values in an incredibly pure form. To me, the book (and the woman) are inspiring in their dedication to the values of art, spontanaeity, love, and Zen naturalness. An invaluable read for women artists, especially, and also for artists in general, and people interested in a certain world view and life style.

2002-12-15 | denbee (Yonkers, New York United States) | Helpful Votes: 7 | Rating: 5

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quite the life
I found this book to be captivating. I felt as though I was right along side her on her journeys. The eras she lived through were so richly detailed. She had so much hope and energy. I never wanted this book to end.

2002-10-27 | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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Beat then and now
Diane di Prima is one of the most foremost and noteworthy female writers of the Beat generation and the 20th century. She has been affiliated with such writers as Jack Keroac, Allen Ginsburg and Robert Creeley. She wrote and inspired in a mans world bringing to life a new female perspective in the 1950's. She continues to write extraordinary poetry, essays, and amazing prose. Her writing style is original and still refreshing to read fifty years later. Diane in her latest book Recollections of My Life As a Woman : The New York Years, an autobiography, goes on to embrace all aspects of her life as a woman. It was an amazing book. I enjoyed it, and I think most will, even if your forte is not beat generation history. It's a good read for others who want to learn more about the beat generation, and it's a great book because of the excellent narrative, and the obvious love she has for writing as well as life it's self.

2002-09-18 | lhipps (Santa Cruz, CA) | Helpful Votes: 5 | Rating: 5

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I Cried
At the end of the book I cried because it was over. That happened once before at age 10 when I finished Black Beauty. This book hit nerves in me that hadn't been touched since On the Road. DiPrima's brilliance, toughness, honesty and forays into the unknown make me want to find her phone number so I can talk to her... this rare woman!

2002-05-31 (Novato, CA USA) | Helpful Votes: 6 | Rating: 4

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Revolutionary Letters

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.

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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.

2005-01-17 (USA) | Helpful Votes: 14 | Rating: 5

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Loba (Poets, Penguin)

Description

Loba is a visionary epic quest for the reintegration of the femimine, hailed by many as the great female counterpart to Allen GinsbergÆs Howl when the first half appeared in 1978. Now published for the first time in its completed form with new material, Loba, "she-wolf" in Spanish explores the wilderness at the heart of experience, through the archetype of the wolf goddess, elemental symbol of complete self-acceptance.

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Customer Reviews

"It is the Word that is the Ground of Love..."
"It is the Word that is the Ground of Love..."

Diane di Prima is one of the most talented twentieth century American women poets, and the most important female figure of the Beat literary movement. She has authored thirty four books, including the two that have appeared in 1998, Loba, and the re-issued edition of Memoirs of a Beatnik, a classic of Beat narrative-a witty chronicle of the cultural conditions from which it grew. When the first part of Loba first appeared in 1978, it was hailed as the female counterpart to Allen Ginsberg's Howl. Loba is a series of poems forming a compact whole, presenting in a visionary manner all forms of the female experience. Anyone who knows Diane di Prima and her work knows that she is Loba, the protagonist of the work and the focal point of the poems. Loba, meaning she-wolf in Spanish, is an archetypal figure, fusing qualities that are both human and animal, terrestrial and divine. Diane di Prima's poetry has been essentially lyrical, even in its most radical aspects, but she has chosen to define this work of her maturity as an epic, inasmuch as an epic is a narrative poetic work about a quest. As in all epics, di Prima starts in a present time that echoes the past and that clearly foreshadows the portion of the journey to come: the conclusion. The poem opens with an invocation to the "lost moon sisters", to whom di Prima's poetry is addressed, who all partake of the divine multiplicity of the wolf-goddess. As poet Marge Piercey commented, di Prima, in this book, has taken from many mythologies to create her own. Loba is not just one figure, rather, it is a conglomeration of the re-incarnations of many personae within one character. We see the Loba under many other masks: in Flanders, we see her in the soft light of a Vermeer painting; in the exquisite Kali-ma versions, she is "as fresh as jasmine", but also bloody and ferocious; we see her also as the Maternal Principle, singing to her children or making an amulet for her daughter; we see her as the principle of Female Creation, Lilith; geographically, we see her in the most diverse places, from Brooklyn to the Bardo; we see her young, ageless and as an old hag. Born in Brooklyn in 1934, having lived in Manhattan for a period of time, Diane di Prima moved to Northern California where she has lived for the past thirty years. She has studied Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, and has delved in the science of alchemy and in the western magical traditions. This work summarizes her life and work, presenting to us her poetic itinerary. In Loba di Prima deals with mythical figures from the native American mythology to the heroes of Western medieval romances (from Tristan and Iseult to Guinevere), to the figures of the Judeo-Christian religion in The Seven Joys of the Virgin, to the acclamations to Lilith, to the personal re-creation of the myths of classical antiquity (such as Persephone, Ariadne, Helen, et al.), to the saga of the Sumerian Goddess Inanna, and finally to the hymns in honor of the Goddess Kali. Loba lives her own eclectic myth and encourages all of us to create our own magical reality. The superiority of the Female Principle permeates the whole volume, as openly declared in one of the Inanna poems: "The king is expendable, but not the Queen." Di Prima has evolved from a poetry that was essentially a poetry of protest and denunciation to a poetry that is meditation in motion, and that includes, comforts, teaches and soothes, rather than confronts. The style is fresh, crisp, and abounds with startling and powerful images. But there is a new, hieratic, classical tone in many of the poems in this volume. The volume is replete with teachings, reflections and musings on life that di Prima wants to share with her readers, and that come forth as brief and powerful aphorisms, as in the first verse of poem "He Who Was Not Born from a Lotus": "It is the Word that is the Ground of Love. . ." In many poems, di Prima speaks like a Hermes-like messenger come down to speak to men: "I come to speak of the long & slender vase / of the goblet like a sphere laid open / of the vessel with two handles, the one with none. . ." The epic properly ends with a poem entitled "Persephone: Reprise", a poem about severance and rebirth. Every great poem is a descent to what di Prima calls "the fluid boundaries of Hades," from which "we spring continuously into life & death." It is apparent that under the persona of Loba, the poet is talking about herself, the woman "with broom and pen," describing herself in a remarkably objective way, as if she were on the outside, looking at herself: "There is a woman who is full of grace / her lap is ample & empty / she is not abstract or sheepish / ... I warmly recommend this volume as one of the most important books of poetry of the twentieth century.

A Reader from Berkeley, CA

2000-05-04 | Helpful Votes: 12 | Rating: 5

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Depth and richness, weaving present and past
I had the privilige of hearing Diane Di Prima read recently, and discovered a new found appreciation for this collection. Many of her volumes have been published as a smaller collection previously, and then expanded to include the later works. 'Loba' is an amazingly, deceptively layered collection weaving together many themes and images over a length of her life. I highly recommend this, among others!

1999-11-07 | Helpful Votes: 12 | Rating: 5

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Dinners and Nightmares

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Customer Reviews

je l'aime
I'm a huge di Prima fan, and this is an awesome book. The More or Less Love Poems are some of my favorite of all her poetry.

2004-05-24 | cakester (Berkeley, CA) | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 5

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Memoirs of a Beatnik

Description

From one of the Beat movement's most accomplished writer's comes a witty, sexy autobiography and feminist epic poem. Long regarded as an underground classic for its gritty and unabashedly erotic portrayal of the Beat years, MEMOIRS OF A BEATNIK is a moving account of a powerful woman artist in a movement dominated by a small confederacy of men, many of whom she lived with and loved.

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Customer Reviews

The Beat Life, Oy Vay, What A Steamy Read
When I ordered this book I expected it to be nothing more than a slightly cleaned up recital of the beat life. My uncles told me how it was growing up about this time. They didn't tell me about this aspect of the beat life. At first I thought, this book is mere porno until I realized that this was just one facet of the beat life. An aspect that every generation has to deal with. No different, no better or no worse in learning on the run. A good book, if one to keep away from the kiddies.

2010-08-30 (Summit Hill, PA USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Di Prima reading
Everything a beat junkie could ever want and then some. Sometimes you are or you aren't. You do or you don't. Why not? Because f-ing why not?
I liked it. A good read over all. If you are easily offended then this is not for you. Or maybe it is? If you think morality belongs in the editing room then again this is especially written for you.
If you've come here looking for answers go find you're own.

2010-06-12 | red bones (Sacramento, CA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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'Not Porn?' No, but not for prudes!
No, it is not porn...but it is definitely not for prudes!

This book gave me a gorgeous, ripe, sensual snapshot of the life and the times of Diane DiPrima and the subculture in which she existed.

The writing sometimes lacked, but overall - it's a juicy peach with a bittersweet aftertase.

2006-11-25 | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 4

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Read with one hand free.
This book was loaned to me by a friend who swore that I would have to read it "with one hand free". While the story is very erotic, and the sex scenes are very real and compelling, I would not wholly agree with that statement. This, in part, is due to the fact that love scenes between men and women no longer do anything for me sexually. I prefer erotic writings between two women, and, though there were a few added to this book to spice things up (for me anyways) there were definitely not enough to arouse me to free one hand.

The story, however, is well written. It was an easy, delightful read, one that I polished off in two sittings. It catalogues the life of a young writer coming into her own sexuality, seizing whatever moments of transient, sensual bliss that she comes across. This book is somewhat autobiographical, cultivated from Di Prima's own experiences as a college drop out who, annoyed with the system of 1950`s education, decided to instead pursue writing full time. The main character in the story parallels her life to such a degree that the author had even named her heroine "Di Prima". The character Di Prima also flits about in the underworld of 1950's New York, inhabiting skeevy, infested pads with multiple people, coffee houses, book stores, parks, smoked out bar scenes, forests, fields, and (on one occasion) a country farm. Where the truth is obscured in this bohemian world of sex, drugs, and (pre) rock and roll is only up to the reader's decision. I know little about Di Prima myself, so I like to look at this as a fairly inventive, fictional piece of writing.

This is definitely a worthwhile read. I must admit, were I more inclined to heterosexual love scenes, I would have, indeed, read this with one hand free, seeing as how in every single chapter is a different, vivid description of one of her many sexual encounters. If you are inclined to beat writing, this is a canon of that genre. If you are a fan of erotica, how have you not read this one yet? Read it in a room, alone, or with a partner. It will get your juices flowing, if you pardon the pun.

2005-08-30 | Karusichan (Lansing, MI. USA.) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 4

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Memoirs of a Beatnik
As someone isn't easily shocked by sex, this book was engaging. I found myself hoping to find happiness within "one" of her sexcapades. However, if you are interested in an easy read, with graphic details. Enjoy. Don't be offended.

2005-07-17 | ruthy (Louisville, KY) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 4

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