…Oh, of thine only worthy blood

And my tears, make a heavenly Lethean flood,

And drown in it my sins’ black memory…

                                    John Donne, Holy Sonnet 9

I want to speak now, before time moves

beyond me, my voice lost to the living.

I have failed to help, failed to want to help.

Mute when words were wanted,

passive when I could have acted

in defense, in compassion.

I have withheld love, betrayed trust,

hidden myself away, afraid.

And this – I left my mother alone

when she needed me.

In my unbelief, priest and sacrament

have no holy power to forgive, to absolve. 

I kneel and know no grace, my only prayer

contrition, my penance sins’ dark memory.

Drawn to the written and spoken word and poetry since a child, Diana started writing poetry after retiring from careers in music, theater, and executive recruiting. Her poems are influenced by largely by 20th-century poets, and she’s an avid reader of a wide range of voices, past and present.

She recently has started to submit work to publications and has thus far won second place in a contest by the Poetry Society of Virginia in the sonnet category. She’s also been published in the Virginia Writers Project literary journal.

Diana lives on a farm in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.