Bud Osborn

Remembering Bud Osborn and his poetry

Bud Osborn, DTES poet, prophet, and activist (1947-2014)

by the Editors

As the DT East goes to press, we received word that DTES poet and activist Bud Osborn has died. Bud was a founding member of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users and was appointed to the Vancouver Richmond Health Board in the 1990s. Bud was the driving force that pushed the Health Board to declare a public health emergency in the DTES because of the raging epidemic of drug overdose deaths. Bud’s work was also instrumental in getting Insite open, North America’s only safe injection site. Bud was passionate and tireless in humanizing people who use drugs, fighting back against the rampant social stigma caused by the war on drugs. (…)

the past is not past

a poem

the past is not past/ the dead are not dead/ the past is experiences/ of suffering and loss and joy and achievement/ the many lives/ in each of us/ in the generations inside us in the world inside us/ in the histories within us (…)