“Revolutionary Letter #15,” Diane Di Prima”Revolutionary Letter #15,”

When you seize Columbia, when you
seize Paris, take
the media, tell the people what you’re doing
what you’re up to and why and how you mean
to do it, how they can help, keep the news
coming, steady, you have 70 years
of media conditioning to combat, it is a wall
you must get through, somehow, to reach
the instinctive man, who is struggling like a plant
for light, for air
//
when you seize a town, a campus, get hold of the power
stations, the water, the transportation,
forget to negotiate, forget how
to negotiate, don’t wait for De Gaulle or Kirk
to abdicate, they won’t, you are not
“demonstrating” you are fighting
a war, fight to win, don’t wait for Johnson or
Humphrey or Rockefeller, to agree to your terms
take what you need, “it’s free
because it’s yours”