A note from DIANE DI PRIMA.

I am speechless.

In under 3 days, we have raised over $11,000.00 for Diane Di Prima at GIVE FORWARD.

As the emails started to flood my inbox from Give Forward, sending me not only each donor's name (which, I copied and pasted and sent to Diane), but also MANY emails from people wanting to help with organizing fundraisers, shows, workshops... all in the name of Diane.  I am so honored and grateful to be a conduit for even a fraction of the electricity that is being charged into Diane's heart right now.  She feels it.

"How about that?"  She said when I called her last night and told her of the messages and donations and hugs and Etceteras and ands. "There is still more work to be done."

And this is true.  There is still more work to be done.  Diane wanted me to share this letter with all of you.   Please continue to pass along the Give Forward link and know that I will be calling Diane twice a week to share any and all updates on this outstanding achievement brought to her by the poetry community.

And now from Diane, received last night:

Amber, I want to thank you and Michael McClure for making my situation known. And I especially want to thank all of you who have contributed to keeping me here on the planet. I want all you guys to know I am working HARD at getting and staying well. Aside from the dental stuff, I'll need glaucoma surgery, it seems. I'm also dealing with photosensitivity (caused by my reaction to a medicine) which makes it hard to be at the computer (my eyes tear). Right now, I can only work in my study at night. As some of you know, I was born with spinal stenosis and rheumatoid arthritis has made it worse. This also limits how long I can sit at the computer. Since so many of you have been kind enough to say that you've enjoyed my work over the years, I want to let you know I have a LOT of books in the pipeline: some ready for publication, others needing only a little tweaking. (There are 14 of those, all told). Then there are all the notebooks with handwritten poems not yet typed. Right now, what I need most is TIME: Time to rest, do the next steps for my health, go to doctor appointments. Time to work on books that are ready or almost ready—without having to stop doing that to teach or earn money. I need to write new stuff, too: poems, of course; Part 2 of my autobiography, etc. (I need to paint some, too, for my own sanity.) I hope to hire a friend to help part-time with typing, correspondence, filing. I KNOW I can get strong and active again: teach what I really want to pass on; do readings, maybe travel, if my back allows. Thank you again, everyone, who is helping to make these things happen—one step at a time.