Pieces of a Song: Selected Poems

by Diane di Prima, Robert Creeley (Foreword by)

Feminist Beat poet Diane di Prima was born in Brooklyn, New York. She attended Swarthmore College for two years before moving to Greenwich Village in Manhattan and becoming a writer in the emerging Beat movement. There, she developed friendships with poets Amiri Baraka, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Frank O'Hara and Audre Lorde. After joining Timothy Leary's intentional community in upstate New York, she moved to San Francisco in 1968. One of her collections of poetry, The Poetry Deal , is also published by City Lights Publishers. Di Prima was named Poet Laureate of San Francisco in 2009. She has been awarded the National Poetry Association’s Lifetime Service Award and the Fred Cody Award for Lifetime Achievement and has also received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Committee on Poetry, the Lapis Foundation and the Institute for Aesthetic Development. St. Lawrence University granted her an honorary doctorate.

Genres: Poetry, American

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Diane di Prima was an American poet and member of the Beat Generation. She was San Francisco’s poet laureate from 2009 to 2011.

Reviews

[Steven Godin · Rating 5 out of 5]

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


MORE OR LESS LOVE POEMS

*
your tongue
explodes
like jailbreaks
in my head

*
damn you
lovely
you come and go
like rivers
which makes it hard
on rocks

*
you bet your life
next bedtime
I'll get even

I'll call your name wrong
and you'll think
it happened
accidental

*
you are not quite
the air I breathe
thank god

so go.

[SmarterLilac · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this. I've tried to give it away to several people, but it keeps floating back to me.

[Tonya Grigg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Her poetry is absolutely heart wrenching. Why haven't I read this before now?

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

get your cut throat off my knife.

first time reading a poetry collection in its entirety. fell in love with di prima after being brought to tears while reading ave from loba, magical mystical gruesome woman i love you.

[Jessie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nightmare 2 (di Prima)

Having a cleaner house than usual I did the dishes. Gathering those long slime worms, dayold spaghetti, I dropped from the sink into the garbage them whereupon one slithered to the floor and lay there smirking.

Ugh I said but having a cleaner floor than usual I tried to pick it up, whereupon it nudged limply over and again smirked. After ten minutes of chase I with dirtier hands than usual gave up.

Oh well I said under the water faucet it will be hard as nails tonight the bastard and I'll pick it up stiff as a board.

Whereupon looking down again I saw a line of sleek roaches was marching the worm away and singing 'Onward Christian Roaches.'

The din was unbearable and I remained horrored to the spot until a slightly larger roach, obviously leader, nudged me to see if I too could be carried off.

[Abigael Sage · Rating 3 out of 5]

For such an iconic writer such as Di Prima, from the Beat Movement, I was a bit unsatisfied with a good majority of the poems in this book. The grammatical errors throughout also left much to be desired. There is a good bit I did enjoy, however, her "Revolutionary Letter" is, in my opinion, a much better read.

"Why stand for it? Why take what's offered, why not walk toward the green and flickering sea that comes to meet us?"

"I suppose it hasn't been easy living with me either, with my piques, and ups and downs, my need for privacy."

[emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the poems fall closer to three stars for me, but the highlights merit a fourth star. Many of these poems I will revisit for years. Di Prima's accessible yet inventive language and innovative engagement of many difficult subjects make this a worthwhile read. However, a lot of the poems bleed together. Additionally, many of them are rather opaque though still show a clear consciousness of their aural quality as one might expect from her Beat associations.

[Steve]

Diane di Prima (August 6, 1934 – October 25, 2020)

Blessed be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw8lU...

https://www.npr.org/2020/10/27/927948...

[Nihlah Assegaf · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I love you & it is OK
that this leads me on strange paths.”

“Pure light of ancient wisdom, stay w/me like a follow spot, pierce my
armored heart, clean
cobwebs of plastic food & deadened
eternal sorrow.”

“The women of the rest of the world have so much to teach me!”

[Emily Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

the great transmutation
may it continue

a new heaven & a new earth
may it continue
may it continue

[Charlotte Cowley · Rating 3 out of 5]

5 / 10

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 1/4 stars

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been meaning to read Diane di Prima for a long time, since I love the Beat poets, and I really wasn't disappointed! She's got a lot of the fun and creative wordplay of her compatriots, but (often) with a wildly different perspective. While at times she got a little woozy and her feminism was a little second-wave for my taste, some of her poems were very biting and smart, while others were really beautiful and quite arresting. I dog-eared many of them, particularly her shorter pieces, to revisit later and take more time to ruminate on.