
kate burns
poet | survivor | advocate | philosopher
I am only a survivor because I am also a poet. It’s not so much that I found the words after my third failed suicide attempt, but that they found me. I knew from my very first poem that something far greater than I could comprehend wanted me to live. But in order to live I needed somewhere outside myself to hold all the pain, and hurt, and trauma I’d experienced over the years. And so, blank pages became the solace I'd been searching for my whole life.
When I first started writing I never intended to share any of it. How could I? It contained all my shame, all the worst moments of my life. But that’s exactly what made it so healing. I was free to write EVERYTHING exactly as I felt it and remembered it and experienced it without fear or judgement or the desire to write “good”.
That’s why I leave every other page in my books blank. It’s why I host trauma-healing poetry workshops.
And it’s why I advocate for writing as an incredibly powerful trauma-healing tool.
Because I've experienced first-hand just how powerfully being honest with yourself about what’s happened to you and how it affected you can change your life.
And I want that for every woman who’s experienced sexual trauma.
That's why I decided to publish my poetry and start sharing my story, because I want to help other women heal from what never should have happened to any of us.
childhood trauma healing collection

also coming soon!
coming soon!

coming soon!
i breathe again
as i have never breathed before
who knew my lungs
could hold so much more?
who knew that i -
still a child in this life -
could find such peace,
could create within myself
such light

do right by your life
do right by you
do right
or simply,
do