Synkroniciti is delighted to welcome back poet Diane Funston, based in California, with two poems about the bond between grandparents and grandchildren. “Cane” is a prose poem which packs a punch, especially in its final line, exploring the past affection between grandmother and granddaughter and contrasting it with the continuing lack of closeness between mother and daughter. Family connections are not equal and many people who have difficult relationships with their parents find a safe, nurturing space with their grandparents. The second poem, “Childhood Memories” is a fond remembrance of that safe space. “We rode to places they kept safe in their memories,/ sharing stories of dance halls and speakeasies/ long gone from the shorelines of Lake Ontario.” Diane’s poetry is so vulnerable and direct that it recreates these spaces for us.
Read Diane’s poetry in our “Family” issue, available at https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Diane Funston writes poetry of nature and human nature. She co-founded a women’s poetry salon in San Diego, created a weekly poetry gathering in the high desert town of Tehachapi, CA and has been the Yuba-Sutter Arts and Culture Poet-in-Residence for the past two years, where she created Poetry Square, a monthly online venue that features poets from all over the world reading their work and discussing creative process.
Diane has been published in Synkroniciti, California Quarterly, Lake Affect Magazine , Still Points Quarterly , F(r)iction, and quite a few other literary journals. Her first chapbook, “Over the Falls” was published July 2022 from Foothills Publishing. She holds a B.A. degree in Literature and Writing from CSU San Marcos.
Diane is also a visual artist in mosaic, wool felting, and collage. Her pieces have been in galleries in the Sacramento Valley. This May she will have her art for sale at the AAUW artists in the garden show.
Diane worked in the mental health field before retirement. She walks 2-3 miles a day with her husband and elderly pit bull and goes to the gym 3 times a week. Diane also tends her urban farm growing oranges, lemons, kumquats, pomegranates, figs, prunes, berries and a wide variety of vegetables and flowers.