Diane di Prima; The poetics of Stardust

images-2 Spotlight on Diane di Prima

Diane di Prima Devoted to her work as a poet, this woman (now 81 yrs old) has spent her life writing and building community around sovereignty and poetics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_di_Prima

I have been reading and enjoying her work since I was introduced to it in 1984. If you have not heard of you, please sit down and take the time to watch some of these videos and read some of these articles and then get your hands on one of her books featuring the Loba poems, Pieces of Song published by City Lights is excellent. Revolutionary Letters reissued by Last Gasp with 20+ new poems is amazing. Support this woman, support yourself and know your own power and presence through her works.

Those of you who know me well, know that I have been reading the poem “Ave” from her Loba poem series on my birthday every year since 2000. Here are a few of her book covers: images

 

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For me, “Ave” is an invocation of the Dark Divine Feminine. I also featured an audio recording of “Ave” on the opening of the Crone section of my three part Images of Goddess sound collage series in 1989. Diane di Prima has been receiving the Loba poems since 1978 and several book length collections of these poems remain unpublished. I have been deeply moved by her work ever since I first encountered it in my teens. Diane di Prima’s involvement with Zen meditation, her personal interactions with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and her participation in Magick all make her a compelling role model.

 

 

Videos:

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Diane di Prima reads revolutionary letters #29 & #19:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3mI197fm3g

Video of just audio Diane di Prima reading Revolutionary letters # 7,13,16 & 49 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PvEaSLY5L0

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Video may 11, 2015 Diane di Prima, Poetics of Enlightenment class with Professor Steven Goodman (1:03:32 long part one); https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2md1AfydSQ

And part 2 (43:27 long)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiV2xav-BUg

 

imgresVideo: San Francisco’s Poet Laureate Program featuring Diane di Prima 2010: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU5MFyfmpio

 

Video Diane diPrima reading at Naropa in the 70’s excerpt from the film Fried Shoes Cooked diamonds by Costanzo Allione   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVN9lamJyoQ

 

Video: Diane diPrima reading at a Lunch poem series in 2008 from Pieces of Song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0adJ7VVwPpc

 

Articles, A  Thesis and related items 

Jan 26, 2013 Dale Smith Article in LA Book Review “Giving Everything: on Diane di Prima Revisiting the Beat luminary’s radical life and work https://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/giving-everything-on-diane-di-prima/?print=1&fulltext=1

Beat Poet Diane Di Prima reflects On Life Outside the Mainstream

April 19,2000 by Connie Lauerman

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2000-04-19/features/0004190043_1_beat-generation-jack-kerouac-di-prima

Doctoral Thesis “ The Feminist Archetypal Analysis of Diane di Prima’s Loba poems for Performance by Cynthia Mildred Meier 1990 U. of Arizona:

http://arizona.openrepository.com/arizona/bitstream/10150/185269/1/azu_td_9111954_sip1_m.pdf

 

Deloach

[Discussion of Tibetan Buddhism at Allen Ginsberg’s apartement, Boulder Colorado, August, 1976. (left to right) Jerome Rothenberg, Anne Waldman, Peter Orlovsky, Allen Ginsberg, Diane Di Prima, Chogyam Trungpa, student, William Burroughs. c. Allen De Loach.]

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche & Allen Ginsberg Boulder Co 1978: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYTEskqkGkg

A wonderful article about the purpose and current state of poetry

http://bostonreview.net/poetry/benjamin-hollander-duncan-mcnaughton-tiny-windows

 

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