A Very Personal Message To The Poetry Community On Behalf Of Diane Di Prima.

Earlier this month, my spirit animal and close family friend poet Michael McClure sent me an email regarding San Francisco Poet Laureate Diane Di Prima who is now 78 years old.  Michael knows that Diane has had a particularly important impact on my life.  Her memoir, Recollections of My Life As A Woman changed me on a fundamental level.  Her very existence, even prior to reading her memoir, shaped the way I viewed myself as an emerging  woman and as a writer.  Upon reading Recollections, I knew I could never go back to the way I viewed myself again.  I could not NOT define myself as, above all things, a poet and a feminist, titles I had always struggled with.

Michael McClure wrote me:

Diane is suffering with several painful and even life-threatening illnesses, including removal of all teeth, arthritis from her earlier back operation, extreme problems with glaucoma and a needed operation; but that's just the top of the list. Despite all, she is in unexpectedly fine spirits. If you know of any way to help her, she would appreciate it and I would also.