Diane Di Prima, This Kind of Bird Flies Backward, (New York, NY: Totem Press, 1958). J.M. Edelstein Collection.

Diane Di Prima, Dinners and Nightmares, (New York, NY: Corinth Books, 1961). Raymond Danowski Poetry Library.

Diane Di Prima, Selected Poems, 1956-1975 , (Plainfield, VT : North Atlantic Books, 1975). Raymond Danowski Poetry Library.

The above images are a depiction of several iterations of “Love Poems” – a work written by the Beat poet, Diane Di Prima. The first edition of “Love Poems” is found in Di Prima’s first book. The next rendition is titled “More or Less Love Poems” which is composed of new work and different poems from Di Prima’s first book. The final edition combines the work from the previous two books and rearranges it on the page.

This display of Di Prima’s different renditions of this poem show her tendency toward reproduction with modification, as opposed to revision. Instead of returning to her old work to alter it, she keeps the text the same, but relabels, rearranges and repurposes the work. This modification allows her poetry to stay the same in content, but shows a shift in her point of view. She preserves her past self, but subtly embeds her work with the perspective of her present without heavy editing.

This revision ideology is reflected in Jack Kerouac’s “Essentials of Spontaneous Prose.”