Saying Goodbye to Martha Silano

Very recently we lost a dear contributor to Bracken—my magnificent friend Martha Silano, who passed on too young in the throes of ALS. She and I were in the same small poetry group—we listened and responded to each other’s poems regularly. She became a strong influence on my writing. Her particular art embodies Bracken’s essential ethos. She drew comfort, power, and sharpened intensity from the truth of our oneness with all nature and cosmos. I’m grateful that her poems survive her. Here, what we’ve offered of hers in our past issues:

https://www.brackenmagazine.com/issue-x/what-isnt-broken-by-martha-silano

https://www.brackenmagazine.com/issue-viii/two-poems-by-martha-silano

–Jed Myers

Back to Issue XIII…

Martha Silano was the author of six poetry collections: Terminal Surreal (Acre Books, 2025), about her journey with ALS; Last Train to Paradise: New and Selected Poems (Saturnalia Books, 2025); This One We Call Ours (Lynx House Press, 2024), winner of the 2023 Blue Lynx Prize; Gravity Assist (Saturnalia Books, 2019); Reckless Lovely (Saturnalia Books, 2014); and The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception (Saturnalia Books, 2011). Her awards included North American Review’s James Hearst Poetry Prize and The Cincinnati Review’s Robert and Adele Schiff Award.