Buddhist Ruminations by Diane di Prima

I first encountered a poem by Diane di Prima (along with the beat-chic sexy photo of her at a poetry reading sitting on top of a piano) in th quintessential Beat text edited by Elias Wilentz, photographs by Fred McDarrah, The Beat Scene (Corinth Books, 1960) sometime in the mid-1960s. It has been in my library wherever I’ve moved in my life. Over the years I’ve accumulated many of her books, including her great pornographic novel, Memoirs of a Beatnik (Traveller’s Companion/Olympia Press, 1969), & her stunning series Revolutionary Letters (Last Gasp of San Franciso, 2007 & City Lights, 1971 - 1980), as well as a couple of her Selected Poems.

In October, 2010 I saw her read at the Charles Olson Centennial Celebration & was able to get my own photos of her (not sitting on a piano). 

Recently Shivastan Publishing issued a beautiful hard-bound edition printed on hand-made paper in India of a bouquet of di Prima’s Buddhist themed poems, Buddhist Ruminations. The book contains 60+ pages, 20 poems, an introduction by poet Anne Waldman, & many old woodcuts of Buddhas, & other illustrations. It even smells great.

I love di Prima’s Revolutionary Letters, which you can find at City Lights Books. Jason Crane has been posting his reading of the Letters at his podcast A Brief Chat.  I would much prefer to hear her read her poems, but I have not found more than a handful of recordings of di Prima herself reading the Letters which is very disappointing (she read, among other works, some of the Letters at the Olson Celebration noted above), but you can buy the book (or get it from your local library) & read them yourself. 

For Shivastan Publishing chapbooks & broadsides visit the website or contact Shiv Mirabito at woodstock108@hotmail.com. You can also find it by visiting the Shivastan Bookshop & Art Gallery, 6 SGT Richard Quinn Dr./Hillcrest Ave., Woodstock, NY — the orange cabin in back.