Revolutionary Letters: Expanded Edition

Originally issued in mimeograph form by the Communication Company in 1968, this work was published by City Lights in four editions between 1971 and 1979, with each edition including additional poems. An expanded edition was published in 2007 by Last Gasp, and here we have a 50th-anniversary run from City Lights enriched by 18 more pieces. The collection nicely captures both the essential di Prima and the spirit of leftist engagé writing of the last decades. The early poems read like an activist's manual ("Everytime you pick the spot for a be-in/ a demonstration, a march, a rally, you are choosing the ground for a potential battle"), and more than halfway through the poet is still exhorting us "refuse to obey/ refuse to die." Maybe she gentles somewhat toward the end, (Well, we can't build the new society w/in the shell of the old'), but it's mostly through wisdom, not loss of faith: if you must choose your shot carefully, it's because you must consider "where/ will it do/ the most/ damage?" Stylistically, the poems start at a march, nearly a run, and open up to be more fluid and conversational, but the collection is a coherent whole.