Revolutionary Letters - Diane di Prima

8/9/2019 Revolutionary Letters - Diane di Prima

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Diane di Prima

Revolutionary LettersMay 1968-December 1971

1971


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Contents

PUBLISHER’S NOTE: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7REVOLUTIONARY NOTE #6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #27 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #29 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #31 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #32 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #33 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #34 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #35 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #36 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26


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REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #37 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #38 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #39 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #40 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #41 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #42 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #43 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #44 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #45 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #46 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #47 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #48 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #49 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #50 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #51 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #52 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #53 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #54 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #55 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #56 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #57 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #58 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #59 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #60 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #61 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #62 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #63 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42


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dedicated to Bob Dylan

PUBLISHER’S NOTE:

is version published 2005 without permission, and is based on the 3 rd edition

of the work by City Lights.Anti-profit, anti-copyright.Revolutionary Leers has been out of print for many years, and we wanted to

bring it back.Look for an expanded edition, rumored to come out soon from Last Gasp Press

of SF.

REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #1

I have just realized that the stakes are myself I have no otherransom money, nothing to break or barter but my lifemy spirit measured out, in bits, spread overthe roulee table, I recoup what I cannothing else to shove under the nose of the maitre de jeunothing to thrust out the window, no white flagthis flesh all I have to offer, to make the play withthis immediate head, what it comes up with, my moveas we slither over this go board, stepping always(we hope) between the lines


e value of an individual life a credo they taught usto instil fear, and inaction, ‘you only live once’a fog in our eyes, we areendless as the sea, not separate, we diea million times a day, we are borna million times, each breath life and death:get up, put on your shoes, getstarted, someone will finish

//Tribe


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an organism, one flesh, breathing joy as the starsbreathe destiny down on us, getgoing, join hands, see to business, thousands of sonswill see to it when you fall, you will grow

a thousand times in the bellies of your sisters


store water; make a point of filling your bathtubat the first news of trouble: they turned off the waterin the 4th ward for a whole day during the Newark riots;or beer yet make a habitof keeping the tub clean and full when not in usechange this once a day, it should be good enoughfor washing, flushing toilets when necessary

and cooking, in a pinch, but it’s a good ideato keep some boled water handy tooget a couple of five gallon jugs and keep them fullfor cooking//store food — dry stuff like rice and beans stores bestgoes farthest. SALT VERY IMPORTANT: it’s health and energyhealing too, keep a couple poundssea salt around, and, because we’re spoiled, some tinstuna, etc. to keep up morale — keep up the senseof ‘balanced diet’ ‘protein intake’ remember

the stores may be closed for quite some time, the trucksmay not enter your section of the city for weeks, you can cool it indefinitely//with 20 lb brown rice20 lb whole wheat flour10 lb cornmeal10 lb good beans — kidney or soy5 lb sea salt2 qts good oildried fruit and nutsadd nutrients and a sense of luxury

to this diet, a squash or coconutin a cool place in your pad will keep six months.


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//remember we are all used to eating lessthan the ‘average American’ and take it easybefore we

ever notice we’re hungry the rest of the folk will be starvingused as they are to meat and fresh milk dailyand help will arrive, until the day no help arrivesand then you’re on your own.//hoard matches, we aren’t goodat rubbing sticks together any morea tinder box is useful, if you can work itdon’t count on gas stove, gas heaterelectric lightkeep hibachi and charcoal, CHARCOAL STARTER a help

kerosene lamp and candles, learn to keep warmwith breathingremember the blessed American habit of bundling


Le to themselves peoplegrow their hair.Le to themselves theytake off their shoe’s.Le to themselves they make love

sleep easilyshare blankets, dope & childrenthey are not lazy or afraidthey plant seeds, they smile, theyspeak to one another. e wordcoming into its own: touch of love;on the brain, the ear.//We return with the sea, the tideswe return as oen as leaves, as numerousas grass, gentle, insistent, we remember

the way,our babes toddle barefoot thru the cities of the universe.


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at some pointyou may be called upon

to keep going for several days without sleep:keep some ups around, to beclearheaded, avoid ‘comedown’ as much as possible,take vitamin B along with amphetamines, trypowdered guarana root, availableat herb drugstores, it is an upused by Peruvian mountainfolk, tasteslike mocha (bier) can be put in teawill clear your head, increase oxygen supplykeep you going past amphetamine wooziness//

at some pointyou may have to crash, under tension, keep some downson’ hand, you may have to cool outsickness, or freak-out, or sorrow, keep some downson hand, I don’t meantranquillizers, ye olde fashioned SLEEPING PILL(sleep heals heads, heals souls) chloryll hydrate(Mickey Finn) one of the best, butnembutal, etc. OK in a pinch, rememberno liquor with barbiturates//at some point

you will need painkillers, darvonis glorified shit, stash some codeine & rememberit’s about five times more effectiveif taken with aspirin//ups, downs & painkillers arethe essence: antibioticsfor extreme infections, any goodwide-spectrum one will do, avoid penicillintoo many allergies, speaking of whichcortisone is good for really bad aacks

(someone who freaks out asthma-style, or with hives)//


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possible even on the east coastto find an isolated place for target practicesuccesswill depend mostly on your state of mind:

meditate, pray, make love, be preparedat any time, to die//but don’t get uptight: the gunswill not win this one, they arean incidental part of the actionwhich we beer damn well be good at,what will winis mantras, the sustenance we give each other,the energy we plug into(the fact that we touch

share food)the buddha natureof everyone, friend and foe, like a million earthwormstunnelling under this structuretill it falls


Everytime you pick the spot for a be-ina demonstration, a march, a rally, you are choosing the groundfor a potential bale.

You are still calling these shots.Pick your terrain with that in mind.Remember the old gang rules:stick to your neighborhood, don’t let them lure youto Central Park everytime, I would hateto stumble bloody out of that park to find help:Central Park West, or Fih Avenue, which would youchoose?//go to love-inswith incense, flowers, food, and a plastic bagwith a damp cloth in it, for tear gas, wear no jewelrywear clothes you can move in easily, wear no glasses


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contact lensesearrings for pierced ears are especially hazardous//try to be clear

in front, what you will do if it comesto troubleif you’re going to try to split stay out of the centerdon’t stampede or panic othersdon’t waver between active and passive resistanceknow your limitations, bear contemptneither for yourself, nor any of your brothers//NO ONE WAY WORKS, it will take all of usshoving at the thing from all sidesto bring it down.


advocatingthe overthrow of government is a crimeoverthrowing it is something elsealtogether, it is sometimes calledrevolutionbut don’t kid yourself: governmentis not where it’s at: it’s onlya good place to start:

1. kill head of Dow Chemical2. destroy plant3. MAKE IT UNPROFITABLE FOR THEM to build again.i.e., destroy the concept of moneyas we know it, get rid of interest,savings, inheritance(Pound’s money, as dated coupons that come in the mailto everyone, and are void in 30 daysis still a good idea)or, let’s start with no money at all and invent itif we need it

or, mimeograph it and everyoneprint as much as they want


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and see what happens//declare a moratorium on debtthe Continental Congress did

‘on all debts public and private’& no one ‘owns’ the landit can be heldfor use, no man holding morethan he can work, himself and family working//let no one work for anotherexcept for love, and what you make above your needs be given to the tribea Common-Wealth//None of us knows the answers, think about

these things.e day will come when we have to knowthe answers.


ese are transitional years and the dueswill be heavy.Change is quick but revolutionwill take A while.America has not even begun as yet.

is continent is seed.


drove acrossSan Joaquin Valleywith Kirby Doylegroovinggeing free Digger meatfor Free City Conventiongrooving

behind talk of Kirby’s familybeen here a long time


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groovingfriendship renewed, neat pickup truck, we stoppedat a gas stationman uptight at the

sight of us, sight of Kirby’s hair, his friendlyloose face, my hair, our dressman surly, uptight, we droveaway brought down(across fields of insecticide and migrant workers)and‘Man’ I said‘that catso uptight, what’s heso uptight about, it’s notyour hair, not really, it’s just

what the TV tells him about hippiesgot him scared, what he reads inhis magazinesgot him scared, we got tocome out from behind the imagesit down with him, if hesat down to a beer with you he’d finda helluva lot more to say than he’ll findwith the man who makes your imagehe’s got nothing in commonwith the men who run his mind, who tell himwhat to think of us’//SMASH THE MEDIA, I said,AND BURN THE SCHOOLSso people can meet, can sitand talk to each other, warm and closeno TV image flickeringbetween them.


the vortex of creation is the vortex of destructionthe vortex of artistic creation is the vortex of self destruction


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the vortex of political creation is the vortex of flesh destructionflesh is in the fire, it curls and terribly warpsfat is in the fire, it drips and sizzling singsbones are in the fire

they crack tellingly insubtle hieroglyphs of oraclecharcoal singedthe smell of your burning hairfor every revolutionary must at last will his own destructionrooted as he is in the past he sets out to destroy


now let me tell youwhat is a Brahmasastra

Brahmasastra, hindu weapon of warnear as I can make outa flying wedge of mind energyhurled at the foe by god or heroor many heroeshurled at a problem or enemycracking it//Brahmasastra can be madeby any or allcan be made by all of us

straight or tripping, thinking togetherlike: all of us stop the warat nine o’clock tomorrow, each take one soldiersee him clearly, love him, take the gunout of his hand, lead him to a quiet spotsit him down, sit with him as he takes a jointof viet cong grass from his pocket . . .Brahmasastra can be madeby all of us, tripping togetherwinter solsticeat home, or in park, or wandering

siing with friendsblinds closed, or on porch, no be-in


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no needto gather publicly just gather spirit, see the forest growingput back the big trees

put back the buffalothe grasslands of the midwest with their herds of elk and deerput fish in clean Great Lakesdesire that all surface water on the planetbe clean again. Kneel down and drinkfrom whatever brook or lake you conjure up.


are you preparedto hide someone in your home indefinitely

say, two to six weeks, you going outfor food, etc., so he never.hits the street, to keep your friends awaycoolly, so they ask no questions, to nursehim, or her, as necessary, to know‘first aid’ and healing (not to freak outat the sight of torn or half-cooked flesh)to pass him on at the right time to the nextstation, to cross the Canadian border, with a childso that the three of youlook like one family, no questions asked,

or fewer, to stash leers, guns, or bombsforget about themtill they are called for, to KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUTnot to ‘trust’even your truelove, that is,lay no more knowledge on him than he needsto do his part of it, a kindnesswe all must extend to each other in this game


When you seize Columbia, when youseize Paris, take


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the media, tell the people what you’re doingwhat you’re up to and why and how you meanto do it, how they can help, keep the newscoming, steady, you have 70 years

of media conditioning to combat, it is a wallyou must get through, somehow, to reachthe instinctive man, who is struggling like a plantfor light, for air//when you seize a town, a campus, get hold of the powerstations, the water, the transportation,forget to negotiate, forget howto negotiate, don’t wait for De Gaulle or Kirkto abdicate, they won’t, you are not‘demonstrating’ you are fighting

a war, fight to win, don’t wait for Johnson orHumphrey or Rockefeller, to agree to your termstake what you need, ‘it’s freebecause it’s yours’


we are eating up the planet, the New York Timestakes a forest, every Sunday, Los Angelesdraws its water from the Sacramento Valleythe rivers of British Columbia are ours

on lease for 99 years//every large factory is an infringementof our god-given right to light and airto clean and flowing rivers stocked with fishto the very possibility of lifefor our children’s children, we will have tolook carefully, i.e., do we really want/needelectricity and at what cost in natural resourcehuman resource

do we need cars, when petroleumpumped from the earth poisons the land around


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for 100 years, pumped from the carpoisons the hard-pressed cities, or try thisstatistic, the USAhas 5% of the world’s people uses over

50% of the world’s goods, our garbageholds maer for survival for uncounted‘underdeveloped’ nations


we will all feel the pinchthere will not bea Cadillac and a 40,000 dollar homefor everyonesimply

the planet will not bear it//What there will be is enoughfood, enoughof the ‘necessities’, luxurieswill have to go by the board//even the poorest of uswill have to give up somethingto live free


let’s talk about spliing, spliing is an artfrequently called upon in revolutionretreat, says the I Ching, must not be confusedwith flight, and furthermore, frequently, it furthersONE TO HAVE SOMEWHERE TO GO//i.e., know in advancethe persons/place you can go to,means to get there

keep money (cash) in house for travellingan extra set of i.d., Robert Williams


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was warned by his own TV set when the Manwas coming for him,he had his loot at home, his wife and kidsall crossed the country with him, into CANADA

and on to CUBA//it’s a good ideato have good, working transportation ‘wheels’, one friendhas two weeks stashed in his VW busfood, water, matches, clothing, blankets, gas, he can goat least that long, before he hits a town, can leaveat any timesomething to think about . . .

REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #19(for e Poor People’s Campaign)if what you want is jobsfor everyone, you are still the enemy,you have not thought thru, clearlywhat that means//if what you want is housing,industry (G.E. on the Navaho reservation)a car for everyone, garage, refrigerator,TV, more plumbing, scientific

freeways, you are stillthe enemy, you have chosento sacrifice the planet for a few years of somescience fiction Utopia, if what you want//still is, or can be, schoolswhere all our kids are pushed into one shape, are taughtit’s beer to be ‘American’ than blackor Indian, or Jap, or PR, where Dickand Jane become and are the dream, do youlook like Dick’s father, don’t you think your kid

secretly wishes you did//


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if what you wantis clinics where the AMAcan feed you pills to keep you weak, or sterileshoot germs into your kids, while Mercke & Co

grows richerif you wantfree psychiatric help for everyoneso that the shrinkspimps for this decadence, can makeit flower for us, if you wantif you still want a piecea small piece of suburbia, green lawnlaid down by the square footcolor TV, whose radiant energykills brain cells, whose subliminal ads

brainwash your children, have taken overyour dreams//degrees from universities which are nothingmore than slum landlords, festering sinksof lies, so you too can go forthand lie to others on some greeny campus//THEN YOU ARE STILLTHE ENEMY, you are sellingyourself short, rememberyou can have what you ask for, ask foreverything


(for Huey Newton)I will not resttill men walk free & fearless on the eartheach doing in the manner of his blood& tribe, peaceful in the free air//

till all can seek, unhinderedthe shape of their thought


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no black cloud fear or guiltbetween them & the sun, no babies burningyoung men locked away, no paper worldto come between flesh & flesh in human

encounter//till the young womencome into their own, honored & fearlessbirthing strong sonsloving & dancing//till the young men can at lastlose some of their sternness, returnto young men’s thoughts, till laughterbounces off our hills & fills

our plains


Can youown land, can youown house, own rightsto other’s labor, (stocks, or factoriesor money, loaned at interest)what aboutthe yield of same, crops, autos

airplanes dropping bombs, can youown real estate, so otherspay you rent? to whomdoes the water belong, to whomwill the air belong, as it gets rarer?the american indians say that a mancan own no more than he can carry awayon his horse.


what do you wantyour kids to learn, do you care


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if they know factoring, chemical formulae, theoryof numbers, equations, philosophy, semanticssymbolic logic, latin, history, socalled, which ismerely history of mind of western man, least interesting

of numberless manifestations on this planet?//do you careif he learns to eat off the woods, to seta broken arm, to mendhis own clothes, cook simple food, delivera calf or baby? if there are cars should he notbe able to keep his running?how will he learn these things, will he learn themcut off in a plaster box, encasedin a larger cement box called ‘school’ dealing with paper

from morning till night, grinding no clay or mortar, nopigment, seing no seedlings in black earthcome spring, how will heknow to trap a rabbit, build a ra,to navigate by stars, or find safe groundto sleep on? what is he doing all his learning yearsinside, as if the planet were no more than a vehiclefor carrying our plastic constructs around the sun


A lack of faith is simply a lack of courageone who says ‘I wish I could believe that’ means simply that heis coward, is pleasedto be spectator, on this scene where there are no spectatorswhere all hands not actually working are working againstas they lie idle, folded in lap, or holding up newspapersfull of lies, or wrapped around steering wheel, on one morepleasure trip


Have you thought about the American aborigineswho will inhabit


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this continent? Cave dwellers, tent people, tree dwellers, will yourgreat-grandchildren be among them? Will they sellartifacts–abalone or wool–to the affluenthighly civilized Africans

who come here in the summer, will they wearbuckskin, or coon, loincloth, run downdeer, catch fish barehanded, build teepees, hogans, rememberto use the wheel, to write, to speak, or simply drum & pipe,smiling, will your great-grandchildren be among them?


Know every wayout of your house, where it goes, every alleyon the block, which back yards connect, which walls

are scalable, which busheswill hold a man.Construct at least one man-sized hiding placein your walls, know for sure which neighborswill let you sneak in the back door & saunter out the frontwhile the man is parked in your driveway, or tearingyour pad apart, which neighbors won’t be home, which cellar doorsare open–whom you can summon in your neighborhoodto do your errands, check the block, set upa getaway while you sit tight inside & your houseis watched. . .


‘DOES THE END JUSTIFY THE MEANS?’ this isprocess, there is no end, there are onlymeans, each onehad beer justify itself.To whom?


How much


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can we afford to lose, before we win, can wecut hair, or give up drugs, take job, join Minute’Men, marry, wear their clothes,play bingo, what

can we stomach, how soondoes it leave its mark, can weliving straight in a straight part of town still seeour people, can we liveif we don’t see our people? ‘It is beerto lose & win, than win & bedefeated’ sd Gertrude Stein, which wd youchoose?


O my brothersbusted for pot, for looting, for lovingyoung beautiful brothers & sisters, for holding out hopein both hands to the Man, enraging himO my brothers, freaking out this moment this beautiful summer eveningin all the cages of Americawhile the sun goes down on this fabled & holy land://know that we have this land, we are filling its crevicesits caves and forests, its coastlines and holy placeswith our mating flesh, with the fierce play of our children our numbers increas-

ingwe are approaching your cells, to cut you looseto march triumphant with you, crying outto Maitreya, across the Pacific


beware of thosewho say we are the beautiful loserswho stand in their long hair and wait to be punishedwho weep on beaches for our isolation

//we are not alone: we have brothers in all the hills


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we have sisters in the jungles and in the ozarkswe even have brothers on the frozen tundrathey sit by their fires, they sing, they gather armsthey multiply: they will reclaim the earth

//nowhere we can go but they are waiting for usno exile where we will not hear welcome home‘goodmorning sister, let me work with yougoodmorning brother, let mefight by your side’


(To ose Who Sold the Revolution Summer of ’68)remember to wear a hat, if you have a hat

and stick your hair inside it, if it’s long hairor don’t, wear shoes if it’s snowing and you have shoesremember they buy out all the leaders, be a leaderif you want to be bought out, but remember totell the truth, just before they buy you, tell the truthloud, and the kids will hear you, not hear your moneyas it falls on the liquorstore counter, day aer daynot hear your dreams of nightmare betrayal and torturenot hear your mercedes, they’ll hear the truth you spokethey’ll believe you and honor you aer you die, brought downby that cia bullet you can’t avoid just by taking their money

they’ll believe you and DO WHAT YOU SAYNOT WHAT YOU DO


(for LeRoi, at long last)not all the works of Mozart worth one human lifenot all the brocaded of the Potala palacebeer we should wear homespun, than some in orlonsome in ailand silkthe children of Bengal weave gold thread in silk saris

six years old, eight years old, for export, they don’t singthe singers are for export, Folkways records


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beer we should all have homemade flutesand practice excruciatingly upon them, one hundred yearstill we learn tomake our own music


not western civilization, but civilization itself is the disease which is eating usnot the last five thousand years, but the last twenty thousandare the cancernot modern cities, but the city, notcapitalism, but ism, art, religion, once they areseparate enough to be seen and named, named art namedreligion, once they are not

simply the daily acts of life which bring the rain, bring bread, heal, bringthe herds close enough to hunt, birth the childrensimply the acts of song, the acts of power, now lostto us these many years, not killing a few white men will bringback power, not killing all the white men, but killingthe white man in each of us, killing the desirefor brocade, for gold, for champagne brandy, which sendspeople out of the sun and out of their lives to createCOMMODITY for our pleasure, what claimdo we have, can we make, on another’s time, another’slife blood, show me

a city which does not consume the air and waterfor miles around it, mohenjo-daro was a bloton the village culture of India, the cities of Egypt suckedthe life of millions, show mean artifact of city which has the poweras flesh has power, as spirit of manhas power


how far back

are we willing to go?“that seems to bethe question, the more we give up


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the more we will be blessed, the morewe give up, the further back we go, can wemake it under the sky again, in moving tribesthat sele, build, move on and build again

owning only what we carry, do we needthe village, division of labor, a friendly potlatcha couple of times a year, or must it bemerely a ‘cybernetic civilization’which may or may not save the water, but will notshow us our root, or our original face, returnus to the source, how far(forward is back) are we willing to goaer all?


hey man let’s make a revolution, let’s giveevery man a thunderbirdcolor TV, a refrigerator, freeantibiotics, let’s buildapartments with a separate bedroom for every childinflatable plastic sofas, vitamin pillswith all our daily requirements that come in the mailfree gas & electric & telephone &no rent, why not?//

hey man, let’s make a revolution, let’sturn off the power, turn on thestars at night, put metalback in the earth, or at least not take it outanymore, make lots of guitars and flutes, teach the chickshow to heal with herbs, let’s learnto live with each other in a smaller space, and buildhogans, and domes and teepees all over the placeBLOW UP THE PETROLEUM LINES, make the carsinto flower pots or sculptures or livein the bigger ones, why not?


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rise up, mybrothers, do not

bow your heads any longer, or prayexcept to the spirit you waken, thespirit you bring to birth, itnever was on earth, rise up, do notdroop, smoking hash or opium, dreaming sweetness, perhapsthere will be time for that, on the long beacheslying in love with the few of us who are le, but nowthe earth cries out for aid, our brothersand sisters set aside their childhoods, prepareto fight, what choice have we but join them, in their handsrests the survival of the very planet, the health

of the solar system, for we are onewith the stars and the spirit we forgethey wait for, Christ, Buddha, KrishnaParacelsus, had but a taste, we must reclaimthe planet, re-occupythis groundthe peace we seek was never seen before, the earthBELONGS, at last, TO THE LIVING


who is the we, who isthe they in this thing, didwe or they kill the Indians, not memy people brought here, cheap labor to exploita continent for them, did weor they exploit it? do youadmit complicity, say ‘wehave to get out of Vietnam, we really shouldstop poisoning the water, etc.’ look closer, look again,secede, declare your independence, don’t accepta share of the guilt they want to lay on usMAN IS INNOCENT & BEAUTIFUL & bornto perfect bliss they envy, heavy deeds


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make heavy hearts and to themlife is suffering, stand clear.

REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #37GEOGRAPHY, U.S.A.the east edge ismegalopolis, isWashington, D.C., spread out800 miles, ecologytotally fucked up, eventhe brothers there do not completely believethat they can win; the west edgeis langorous w/wealth, there venisonis brought down from the hills & figs & wine

from abandoned orchards, the sistersraise their bastard young on welfare checks & roensprayed vegetables, talk ‘free’, talk end of money, for themthe war is over, all the wars; the middleis hardly heard from yet, it isstirring, stretching muscles, bare bones of continent, eternal’progression of young barbarianshuge boiling meat-fed hordes who can’t be taughtthere’s anything to lose, angelic herds whose unholy yellis gonna shake us all


NOT PEOPLE’S PARKPEOPLE’S PLANET, CAN THEYFENCE THAT ONE IN, BULLDOZE IT4 A.M.?


let me tell you, brothers, that on May 30 th I went to one of our

life festivalsdropped acid in Tompins Square Park with my


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brothers & sistersdanced in the sun, till the starscame out & the pigsdrove around us in a circle, where we stood

touching each other & loving, then Iwent home & made love like a flower, like two flowers openingto each other, we werethe jewel in the lotus, next morning still high wandered uptownto Natural History Museum & therein a room of Peruvian fauna, birdsof paradise I saw as a past, like the dinosaurssaw birds pass from the earth &flowers, most trees & small creatures:chipmunks & rabbits & squirrels & delicate wildflowerssaw the earth bare & smooth, austerely plastic & efficient

men feeding hydroponically, working like antsthought flatly, without regret (I have unlearnedregret)‘WHAT BEAUTIFUL CREATURESUSED TO LIVE ON THE EARTH’


if the power of the word is anything, America, your oil fieldsburningyour cities in ruins, smouldering, pillaged by children

your cars broken down, at a standstill, choking the roadsyour citizens standing beside them, bewildered, or choosinga packload of objects (what they can carry away) if thepower of the word lives, America, your power lines downeagle-eyed lines of electric, of telephone, towersof radio transmissiontoppled & rankling in the fields, seing the hay ablazeyour newspapers useless, your populace illiteratewiping their asses with them,IF THE WORD HAS POWER YOU SHALL NOT STANDAMERICA, the wilderness is spreading from the parksyou have fenced it into, alreadydesert blows through Las Vegas, the sea licks its chops


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at the oily edges of Los Angeles,the camels are breeding, the bears, the elk are increasingso are the indians and the very poordo you stir in your sleep, America, do you dream of your power

pastel colored oil tanks from sea to shining sea?sleep well, America, we stand by your bedside,the word has power, the chant is going up


Revolution: a turning, as the earthturns, among planets, as the sunturns round some (darker) star, the galaxydescribes a yin-yang spiral in the aether, we turnfrom dark to light, turn

faces of pain & fear, the dawnawash among them


what is this‘overpopulation’ problem, have youlooked at it, clearly, do you know//ten times as much land needed if we eathamburger, instead of grain; we can

all fit, not hungry, if we minimizeour needs, RIP OFF LARGE, EMPTY RANCHES, make the foodnutritious: chemical fertilizershave to go, nitratespoison the water; large scale machine farminghas to go, the soilis blowing away (300 yearsto make one inch of topsoil), do you know//40% of the women of Puerto Ricoalready sterilized, transistor radios

the ‘sterilization bonus’ in India; all propagandaaimed at the ‘non-white’ and ‘poor white’ populations


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//something like 90% of the land of USAbelongs to 5% of the population:how can they hold on

when the hordes of the infants of the very poorgrow up, grow strong


‘I dreamed of a world without the sick and the fat’– Yevtushenkothe map: first goal is healthstrong bodies make strong spirit, Venceremos Brigadecoming back from Cuba discover they know how to breathethey can get up with the sun; first thing:

to zap the sugar habit, get rid of meat& heavy drugs, to eat no chemicals, no processed foodfirst step:to find out what health feels like: even keeltireless energy pouring steady through//then, prana (vital energy) moving smooththru all yr flesh: next goal releasesex force–strong flesh becomes bright fleshanger becomes ‘Buddha’s anger’ a steady roarrighteous, behind yr action, not spasmodic, threatens

no self-destruction; loose touch onbrothers & sisters, loose force (& contain it)Holy Powerto build up, or pull down


(for my sisters)As we know that bloodis birth, agonybreaks open doors, as we

can bend, graciously, beneath burdens, underminelike rain, or earthworms, as our cries


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yield to the cries of the newborn, as we hearthe plea in the voices around us, not wordsof passion or cunning, discountanger or pride, grow strong

in our own strength, women’s alchemy, quick armsto pull down walls, we liberateout of our knowledge, labor, sucking babes, weliberate, and nourish, as the earth


And it seems to me the struggle has to be wagedon a number of different levels://they have computers to cast the I Ching for them

but we have yarrow stalksand the starsit is a bale of energies, of force-fields, what the newspaperscall a bale of ideas//to take hold of the magic any way we canand use it in total faithto seek help in realms we have been taught to think of as ‘mythological’to contact ALL LEVELS of one’s own being& loose the forces therein

always seeking in this to remain psychically inconspicuouson the not so unlikely chancethat those we have thought of as ‘instigators’are just the front men for a gang of black magiciansbased ‘somewhere else’ in spaceto whom the WHOLE of earth is a colony to exploit(the ‘Nova Mob’ not so far out as you think)//Best not to place bodies in the line of firebut to seek other means: study the Siouxlearn not to fuck up as they did–another ghost dance

started on Haight Street in 1967We ain’t seen the end of it yet


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And as you learn the magic, learn to believe itDon’t be ‘surprised’ when it works, you undercut

your power.


TO BE FREE we’ve got to be freeof any idea of freedom.Today the State Dept lied the ban ontravel to China; and closedMerri College.

REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #48Be careful.With what relief do we fall backon the tale, so oen told in revolutionsthat now we mustorganize, obey the rules, so that laterwe can be free. It is the pointat which the revolution stops. To be carried forwardlater & in another country, this isthe paern, but we canbreak the paern//learn now we seewith all our skin, smell with our eyes toosense & sex are boundless & the callis to be boundless in them, make the joynow, that we want, no shapefor space & time now but the shapes we will


Machinery: extended hands of mandoing man’s work. Diverted rivers


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washing my clothes, diverted firedancing in wires, making light;and heat. To see it thus is to see it, evendiverted rivers must resume their course, and fire

consume, whatever name you call it.


As soon as we submitto a system based on causality, linear timewe submit, again, to the old values, plunge againinto slavery. Be strong. We have the right to makethe universe we dream. No need to fear “science” grovellingapology for things as they are, ALL POWERTO JOY. which will remake the world.


Don’t give up the eleven o’clock news forChairman Mao, don’t switchfrom one “programming” to anotherhang loose, Mao was youngfiy years ago, & in China.


SAN FRANCISCO NOTEI think I’ll stay on thisearthquake fault near thisstill-active volcano in thisarmed fortress facing adying ocean &covered w/dirtwhile thestreets burn up & therocks fly & pepper gas

lays us outcause


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that’s where my friends are,you bastards, not thatyou know what that means//

Ain’t gonna cop to it, ain’t gonnabe scared no more, we allknow the same songs, mushrooms, buerflieswe allhave the same babies, dig itthe woods are big.


HOW TO BECOME A WALKING ALCHEMICAL EXPERIMENTeat mercury (in wheat & fish)

breathe sulphur fumes (everywhere)take plenty of (macrobiotic) salt& cook the mixture in the heatof an atomic explosion


It takes courage to say no//No to canned corn & instantmashed potatoes. No to rice krispies.

No to special K. No to margarinemono & di-glycerides, NSDAfor coloring, causing cancer. No towhite bread, bleached w/nerve gas (wonderbread). No to everything friedin hardened oil w/silicates. No toonce-so-delicious salami, now redw/sodium nitrate.//No to processed cheeses. Nono again to irradiated bacon, pink

phosphorescent ham, dead plasticpasteurized milk. No to chocolate pudding


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like grandma never made. No thanxto coca-cola. No to freshness preserves,dough conditioners, nopotassium sorbate, no

aluminum silicate, NOBHA, BHT, NOdi-ethyl-propyl-glycerate.//No more ice cream? not w/embalming fluid.Goodbye potato chips, peanut buer, jelly, jollywhite sugar! No more DESall-American steaks or hamburgers either!Goodbye, frozen fish! (dipped & coated w/aureomycin) Fried eggs over easy w/hormones, penicillin & speed.

Goodbye, frozen fish! (dipped & coated w/Carnation Instant Breakfast, Nestle’s Qik.Fritos, goodbye! your labels are very confusing.//All I can sayis what my daughter age six once said to me:“if I can’t pronounce itmaybe I shouldn’t eat it.”or, Dick Gregorycoming out of a 20-day fast:“the people of America are controlledby the food they eat”


All thru Amerikaall I see & find isIndian Americathe forms & shapes of Great-Turtle-Island


e forms proliferate.


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As we spin (further) from the lightour bodies sprout new madnessescongenital pale disease, like new plantson the edge of (radioactive) craters

we sprout new richness of designbaroque apologies for Kaliyugatill Kether calls us homehauls in the galaxies like somebig fish.


NOTES TOWARD AN AMERICAN HISTORYOver & over I’ve look forthe picture in the cloth: man

standing idle & tall againsthorizon: “savage” landscapewe stare, poverty-struckat New England pewter infarmhouse window: quoteAdams, Jefferson, hewmap of the sacred meadow//this was theland we were promised,wasnt it? is Fresno

new Jerusalem? whereis Dallas? how wd Olson/Pound/Tom Paine explainPetaluma. Over & over Kirby Doylemadtells tale of his grandfather walking outof the deserthis wife & two sons waiting in a wagon(he had the mule)& the boatsin Gloucester, Newfoundland & Greece

(the same)the wood


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carved in Alaska & New Guinea . . .Over & over we seek that savage mansufficient & generous; we findRockefeller, Nixon;

sad leers of Jeffersonmourning the ravaging of moundbuilders’ landrequesting his daughter not to neglect her French.We; over & over; seeking line & formgold-leaf as in Sienna“outline” as Blakewe sit on shiing groundat the edge of this ocean“as far from Europe as you can get”& watch the hills flicker like dreamskin

REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #58What we need to know is laws of time & spacethey never dream of. Seek outthe ancient texts: alchemyhomeopathy, secret chartsof early Rosicrucians (Giordanisti).Grok synchronicity Jung barelyscratched the surface of.LOOK TO THE “HERESIES” of EUROPE FORBLOODROOT

(remnants of pre-colonized pre-Roman Europe):Insistent, hopeful resurgence of communardsfree love & joy; “in god all things are common”secret celebration of ancient season feasts & moons.Rewrite the calendar.//Head-on war is the mistake we maketime aer timeere is a way around it, way to outflanktechnology, short circuit“energy crisis”: retreat & silencecunningcourage & love


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Look to the cities, see how “urban renewal”tears out the slums from the heart of town

forces expendable poor to the edges, to someremote & indefensible piece of ground:Hunters Point, Lower East Side, Columbia Pointout of sight, out of mind, & when bread riots come(conjured by cuing welfare, raising prices)the man wont hesitate to raze those gheos& few will see, & fewer will object.


First Observable Effects of So-Called “Energy Crisis” (Fall 1973)1. off-shore drilling renewed, Santa Barbara & elsewherewe can expectnew off-shore wells to be openedregardless of consequences2. price of crude oil shoots sky-high, makingthe extraction of shale oil feasible (profitable)which shale oil territory has been preparedfor exploitation by forcing beef prices up, advocatingbeef boycots, forcingsmaller ranches toward bankruptcy3. Peabody Coal plans to occupy Cheyenne land

on legal grounds they are “incapable”of exploiting its “natural resource”, i.e.dont wait to extract minerals at the costof all else4. grim austerity consciousnessempty shelves & stiff upper lip& plenty of hoarding, reminiscentof early 40’s, conditioned reflexright psychological climate for WW III5. of course, police & military will have enough gas& how will you like

to be stationary populace in the gripof a mobile army?


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Take a good lookat history (the American myth)

check sell outof revolution by the founding fathers“Constitution wrien by a bunch of gangstersto exploit a continent” is whatCharles Olson told me.Check Shay’s rebellion, Aaron Burr, Nathan Hale.Who wrote the history books where youwent to school?Check Civil War: maybe industrial northneeded cheap labor, South had it, how manysincere “movement” people

writers & radicals playedinto their hands?Check Haymarket trial: it broke the backof strong Wobblie movement: how many jailed, fined,killed to stop that one? What’s happening to ushas happened a few times beforelet’s change the script//What did it take to stop the Freedom RidersWhat have we actually changed?month I was bornthey were killing onion pickers in OhioMonth that I write this, nearly 40 years laterthey’re killing UFW’s in the stateI’m trying somehow to live in. LET’S REWRITEthe history books.History repeats itself only if we let it.


check Science: whose interest does it serve?

whose need to perpetratemechanical dead (exploitable) universe


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instead of living cosmos?//whose dream those hierarchies: planets & starsblindly obeying fixed laws, as they desire

us, too, to stay in placewhose interest to postulateman’s recent blind “descent” from “unthinking” animalsour pitiable geocentric isolation:lone voice in the stars//what point in this cosmology but to drainhope of contact or change/oppressing us w/“reason”

REVOLUTIONARY LETTER #63Free Julian BeckFree Timothy LearyFree seven million starving in PakistanFree all political prisonersFree Angela DavisFree Soledad brothersFree Martin Sobel. . . .’Free Sacco & VanzeiFree Big Bill HaywardFree Siing Bull

Free Crazy HorseFree all political prisonersFree Billy the KidFree Jesse JamesFree all political prisonersFree Nathan HaleFree Joan of ArcFree Galileo & Bruno & EckhartFree Jesus Christ:Free SocratesFree all political prisoners

Free all political prisonersAll prisoners are political prisoners


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Every pot smoker a political prisonerEvery holdup man a political prisonerEvery forger a political prisonerEvery angry kid who smashed a window a political prisoner

Every whore, pimp, murderer, a political prisonerEvery pederast, dealer, drunk driver, burglarpoacher, striker, strike breaker, rapistPolar bear at San Francisco zoo, political prisonerAncient wise turtle at Detroit Aquarium, political prisonerFlamingoes dying in Phoenix tourist park, political prisonersOers in Tucson Desert Museum, political prisonersElk in Wyoming grazing behind barbed wire, political prisonersPrairie dogs poisoned in New Mexico, war casualties(Mass grave of Wyoming bald eagles, a balefield)Every kid in school a political prisoner

Every lawyer in his cubicle a political prisonerEvery doctor brainwashed by AMA a political prisonerEvery housewife a political prisonerEvery teacher lying thru sad teeth a political prisonerEvery Indian on reservation a political prisonerEvery black man a political prisonerEvery faggot hiding in bar a political prisonerEvery junkie shooting up in John a political prisonerEvery woman a political prisonerEvery woman a political prisonerYou are political prisoner locked in tense bodyYou are political prisoner locked in stiff mindYou are political prisoner locked to your parentsYou are political prisoner locked to your pastFree yourself Free yourself I am political prisoner locked in anger habitI am political prisoner locked in greed habitI am political prisoner locked in fear habitI am political prisoner locked in dull sensesI am political prisoner locked in numb fleshFree meFree me

Help to free meFree yourself


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Help to free meFree yourself Help to free meFree Barry Goldwater

Help to free meFree Governor WallaceFree President Nixon.Free J Edgar HooverFree them;Free yourself Free themFree yourself Free yourself Free themFree yourself

Help to free meFree usDANCEMay 1968-Dec 1971.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Diane di Prima was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1934, a second generationAmerican of Italian descent. Her maternal grandfather, Domenico Mallozzi, wasan active anarchist, and associate of Carlo Tresca and Emma Goldman. She began

writing at the age of seven, and commied herself to a life as a poet at the age

of fourteen. For the past thirty-four years she has lived in northern California,raising five children. In the late ’60s she took part in the political activities of the

Diggers and is widely considered the most important woman writer of the Beat

[email protected]


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Te Anarchist LibraryAnti-CopyrightSeptember 13, 2014

Diane di Prima

Revolutionary LeersMay 1968-December 1971

1971

Scanned from 2014 anonymous reprint.Anonymous reprint (2014) of Tird Edition, March 1974, City Lights Books, San Francisco

Documents

Revolutionary Letters - Diane di Prima