Have you seen the gorgeous Online Poetry Postcard Fest Exhibit yet? Thank you Kristen Ryberg and James Gaynor for making it a reality. On that site you can read that the 15th year of the Poetry Postcard Fest is a tribute to two poets who helped inspire the fest and who died in 2020. From that site:
Tribute to Diane di Prima and Michael McClure
Two poets who had tremendous influence on USAmerican culture and
poetry in the second half of the 20th century, both died in 2020, were good
friends to each other and each had an influence on the Poetry Postcard
Fest.
Michael McClure participated in several SPLAB events, starting with being
interviewed in October 1995 and extolling the wisdom of Projective Verse:
aka Composition by Field. McClure, a member of the Beat Generation
which he called the “Literary Wing of the Environmental Movement.” He
said writing spontaneously was the hardest way to write poetry well and the
notion of spontaneous composition was, in part, why the fest was created.
We wanted participants to have an experience of the thrill of this mode of
composition. McClure was a SPLAB guest, giving readings and conducting
workshops on several occasions in Auburn and Seattle.
Diane di Prima, whose work with the Diggers had her at the forefront of a
very active San Francisco counter-culture in the thick of the 60s and 70s,
working with the Diggers alongside such members as Peter Berg, who is the
prime force behind the notion of bioregionalism, a huge influence in our
work. She came to the Auburn SPLAB on one occasion to give a reading
(where she read her remarkable and prescient poem Rant) be interviewed,
and to conduct a workshop. This was the same weekend as the annual town
tribute to veterans, so SPLAB di Prima workshop attendees listened to
Diane while tanks were literally parked across the street just outside the
venue. Diane also was a PARTICIPANT in the first Poetry Postcard Fest and
we’re doing all we can to track down any of those poems from back then.
Her commitment to intersectionality and community was extraordinary.
The 15th Poetry Postcard Fest in 2021 is a tribute to poets Diane di Prima and Michael McClure.
Join today at www.popo.submittable.com and be part of the vibrant international community of poetry correspondents.
Registration ends July 18.
Ah, two poets long associated with San Francisco. Knew them both. Will register. Ka-boom. Ka-boom. GRRRRRRRRXXXXXXXXX
So excited to be a part of this.
It seems like another lifetime when I attended readings at Boulder’s Naropa School of Disembodied Poetics and was enthralled with Diane di Prima’s poetry then. I’m saddened to hear that she’s no longer with us here, but I’m sure she’s composing even greater disembodied poetry now.