Spring 2002
New Series · Volume XXIV Number 2

Contents · Selections · Editor's Notes & Cover Art

DIANE di PRIMA

2.
Still heat in the lowlands; there is thunder among the clouds
A cicada shrieks from the palmetto, stirring the surface of the inlet
Though a piercing intent dwells in my stormy heart (solar plexus)
This poem resembles thunder without lightning.

3.
Like a bird hidden in the white throat of a lily
I sleep with my hips in the sand, among bright stones
No wind stirs even the lowest oat grass
But from the sea the night horn of a passing boat
Carries me in the dark to the jade door of a star.

San Francisco poet Diane di Prima is the author of thirty-four books, and her work has been translated into twenty languages. She received an honorary doctor of literature degree from St. Lawrence University in 1999. She was master poet-in-residence at Columbia College, Chicago, in spring 2000. Her autobiography, Recollections of My Life as a Woman: the New York Years, was published by Viking in April 2001.

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