Last Gasp of San Francisco 2005 Revolutionary Letters © 1971, 1974, 1979, 2005 Diane di Prima Published and Distributed by Last Gasp of San Francisco 777 Florida Street San Francisco, CA 94110 www.lastgasp.com email:
[email protected] ISBN 0-86719-538-X Fifth expanded edition, September 2005 Printed in Hong Kong Cover Design by Tara Marlowe Thank you to Sara Larsen for her assistance. World Rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, xerography, scanning, or any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior permission in writing of the author or publisher. The REVOLUTIONARY LETTERS are dedicated to Bob Dylan; and to my grandfather, Domenico Mallozzi, friend of the great anarchist dreamers of his time, who read me Dante at the age of four & named my mother after Emma Goldman. 5 APRIL FOOL BIRTHDAY POEM FOR GRANDPA Today is your birthday and I have tried writing these things before, but now in the gathering madness, I want to thank you for telling me what to expect for pulling no punches, back there in that scrubbed Bronx parlor thank you for honestly weeping in time to innumerable heartbreaking italian operas for pulling my hair when I pulled the leaves off the trees so I’d know how it feels, we are involved in it now, revolution, up to our knees and the tide is rising, I embrace strangers on the street, filled with their love and mine, the love you told us had to come or we die, told them all in that Bronx