City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects CUNY Graduate Center 6-2021 Pierce and Pine: Diane di Prima, Mary Norbert Korte, and the Meeting of Matter and Spirit Iris Cushing The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4402 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] PIERCE AND PINE: DIANE DI PRIMA, MARY NORBERT KORTE, AND THE MEETING OF MATTER AND SPIRIT by IRIS CUSHING A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in EnGlish in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the deGree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2021 i © 2021 Iris CushinG All riGhts reserved ii Pierce and Pine: Diane di Prima, Mary Norbert Korte, and the Meeting of Matter and Spirit by Iris Cushing This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in English in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. 5/13/21 Date Ammiel Alcalay Chair of ExamininG Committee 5/13/21 Date Kandice Chuh Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Ammiel Alcalay Joan Richardson Steven Kruger THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT Pierce and Pine: Diane di Prima, Mary Norbert Korte And the Meeting of Matter and Spirit by Iris Cushing Advisor: Ammiel Alcalay Diane di Prima (1934-2020) and Mary Norbert Korte (b. 1934) are two poets whose contributions to postwar American poetry are vitally important, and yet their status on the margins of mainstream literary culture has left their work largely unstudied. Di Prima, the GranddauGhter of Italian Anarchist Domenico Mallozzi (with whom she shared a close relationship) Grew up in an Italian- American community in Brooklyn and bore witness to the cultural schizophrenia of WWII as a child. Korte was raised in an affluent Bay Area family, and encountered hardships (includinG the death of her father when she was 12) that affected her deeply. Both poets made conscious decisions to depart from the paths prescribed to them at a younG aGe: Korte became a Dominican nun in San Francisco at aGe 18, while di Prima dropped out of Swarthmore ColleGe at aGe 19 to pursue the life of the independent poet in New York’s East VillaGe. Both poets went on to live lives that merged spiritual/reliGious practice, political activism, and a profound commitment to poetic inteGrity. Both were Guided by their own intuition throuGhout their lives, makinG writinG in ways that refused to conform to institutionally-administered cateGories of knowledGe. Pierce and Pine: Diane di Prima, Mary Norbert Korte and the Meeting of Matter and Spirit examines the lives and works of these two poets across eight decades. In doinG so, the dissertation aims to establish these poets’ essential place in postwar American poetry. DrawinG largely on conversations with di Prima and Korte, primary-source research in institutional archives (and in the poets’ personal archives), close-readinGs of published and unpublished manuscripts, Pierce and Pine takes up poet Charles Olson’s vision of history as a process of iv “findinG out for oneself.” The chapters in Pierce and Pine offer histories of Korte’s embrace of, and departure from, the Catholic church; di Prima’s pivotal role in the small-press poetry communities of 1950s New York; Korte’s environmental activism in the California Redwoods; and di Prima’s innovative, hermetically- driven interpretations of Romantic poetry. Numerous voices contribute firsthand to the creation of these histories, includinG the poet and scholar David Henderson, whose first book was published by di Prima’s Poets Press in 1967. Pierce and Pine concludes with a narrative of the author’s encounter at a younG aGe with di Prima’s Memoirs of a Beatnik; this narrative aims to recuperate the value of di Prima’s “potboiler” erotic novel as an important proto-feminist work. Part cultural history, part research document, part literary criticism, part memoir, Pierce and Pine distills the presence of two poets who, aGainst Great odds, merged material and spiritual knowledGe in the livinG body of poetry. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I extend my deepest Gratitude first and foremost to Diane di Prima, an essential presence, who passed away as I was finishinG this dissertation. I offer my most heart-filled thanks to Mary Norbert Korte for her profound willinGness to undertake this journey with me. These poets’ wisdom is with me always. This work would not have been possible without the mentorship of Ammiel Alcalay: Guide, co-conspirator, poet, and friend. Thank you. Thanks to the mentors and poets whose Guidance has been vital to me in this writinG: David Henderson, Joan Richardson, Alexander Schlutz and Steven KruGer. Thanks to the brilliant editors and poets at the Center for the Humanities: Sampson Starkweather, Kate Tarlow Morgan, Stephon Lawrence, and Jordan Lord. This work was made possible in part by the Diane di Prima Fellowship from the Center for the Humanities (2016-2018). I was also supported in this writinG by a Dissertation Year Fellowship for the 2018-2019 academic year. The archivists at the Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation (RBSCP) at the University of Rochester, Melinda WallinGton and Autumn HaaG, provided Generous and onGoinG support in my research on Korte. I offer my heartfelt Gratitude to my family for their unflaGGinG support and inspiration over the years: my Mom, Beth Wettergreen, my Dad, James CushinG, Celeste Goyer, my sister, Grace Morgan, my brother, Alex CushinG, and my son, Ben Kane. My spirit-family, MeG Hehner, Steve Schroeder, Annie Frerichs and Mari Penley. My lifelonG friends, Ander Mikalson and Loie Hollowell. I thank the intellectual community at the Graduate Center that nurtured me as I made this work: Öykü Tekten, Kendra Sullivan, Will Camponovo, Iemanja Brown, and Patrick James. Special Gratitude to Mary Catherine Kinniburgh, my intellectual and spiritual comrade, who I am ever Grateful to be on this journey with. My community in the Western Catskills was instrumental in the makinG of this work: Jennifer Kabat, Marco Breuer, Mina Takahashi, Anna Moschavakis, Heather Phelps-Lipton, Adrian Shirk, Ann Holder, Anne Elizabeth Moore, Laura Taylor, Roz Foster, Lindsay Comstock, Sam Eichblatt, Leah Frankel, Darwin Marcus Johnson, Kaylee Velez, Cassie WaGler, and Madalyn Warren. vi My time doinG research in California was aided by some extraordinary souls: Sheppard Powell, Courtney Johnson, Sarah Fontaine, Sara Larsen, and Elaine Katzenberg. Mary Korte’s neiGhbors in Irmulco, Chris, Britt, Matt, Shanna and Jude, were remarkably kind and supportive in my work with Korte. I thank, with joy, the community of poets who have made the fertile soil for my ideas to Grow in over the last decade-plus: Elizabeth Clark Wessel, Sade LaNay, Joshua Beckman, Samantha ZiGhelboim, Ali Power, Christian Hawkey, Noel Black, Marina Weiss, Marina Blitshteyn, Emily Brandt, Julia Guez, Montana Ray, Sam Ross, Adie Russell, MC Hyland, Mónica de la Torre, Rachael Wilson, and Tanya Paperny. My encouraGinG and brilliant poet friends Kevin Killian and Holly Anderson passed away while I was workinG on this dissertation; I am ever Grateful for their presence in my life. Portions of this dissertations have appeared in print in various forms: “Into the LonG LonG Time: Mary Korte’s Spirit of Place” was published as a chapbook titled Into the Long Long Time: How Mary Korte Saved the Trees by Ink Cap Press, Fall 2019. “The First Books of David Henderson and Mary Norbert Korte” was published as a pamphlet by the same title in the UGly DucklinG Presse Pamphlet Series, Summer 2020. Portions of “A DowsinG Rod of the Heart: Diane di Prima’s Scholarship of Intuition” appeared in the introductory essay to Prometheus Unbound as a Magickal Working in Series VIII of the Lost & Found: CUNY Poetics Document Initiative, Fall 2019. Portions of “A DowsinG Rod of the Heart: Diane di Prima’s Scholarship of Intuition” were published in the introduction for the Loba Part 1 diGitized chapbook on the Poets House website, SprinG 2019. Portions of “My Memoirs of a Beatnik” were published in Granta (“On Diane di Prima”, November 2020) and Frieze (“Diane di Prima’s Guidebook to Revolution”, November 2020). My Gratitude to the editors of these publications for their Generosity in sharinG this work with the world. This work is dedicated to Jonathan Kane. vii Table of Contents Pierce and Pine: An Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Into the Long Long Time: Mary Norbert Korte’s Spirit of Place 17 Noyo Redwoods Jubilee 19 Into the LonG LonG Time 35 “Oh God my riGht hand/is blind with sounds” 52 The Trees are Mother Superior 60 Chapter 2 OriGins 74 GatherinG Madness 74 The House on Mystic Street 93 Chapter 3 The First Books of David Henderson and Mary Norbert Korte 112 The Network 112 “Beauty of the place tone” 121 Chapter 4 A DowsinG Rod of the Heart: Diane di Prima’s Scholarship of Intuition 154 Prometheus Unbound as a MaGickal WorkinG 156 “Swiftness and YearninG” 164 “The Shapeliness of the Mind” 167 1973: TurninG toward Loba 176 Chapter 5 My Memoirs of a Beatnik 185 December 2001, Woodland, CA 188 Hairspray 191 viii The Love Poet of Sacramento 200 “Blonde and Silent” 213 Art Teachers 217 “A Beautiful YounG Boy” 221 Braids 229 An Apprenticeship of Another Kind 240 BiblioGraphy 255 ix List of Illustrations Fig. 1 Altar on a redwood stump outside Mary Korte’s cabin 23 Fig. 2 Topographical map of the convergence of creeks that form the Noyo River 39 Fig.