Poet Diane Burns (1957-2006) - Sleep Now, Sweet Sister

Diane Burns



photo copyright 1993 by John Ranard

Sleep now, Sweet Sister. Your light always burned sheer through the fog and grime; the grit and glitter of our youth, some kind of measure. Your black booted steps, your silver and shave; the times the blade of the tongue entered and swayed. You were always a knife and a glade, a silent opening, a threshold. You were mind and will over beauty. You were a spit-on finger in the split socket of truth. I remember you. I will always remember you: your light ever-bright as a Manhattan skyline, riding that one-eyed poetry home.

~ Lorna Dee Cervantes, 2/22/07


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Such sad sad news just now. I am home sick with a vicious relapse of this flu and had to cancel classes again. Now, clicking on Silliman's blog, this sad sad news. More later. I am very upset right now -- that phrase, "she drank herself to death at 50."

remembering Diane Burns at a Gathering of the Tribes

"Diane Burns, Native American Lower East Side Poet"