Isn’t the moon dark too,
most of the time?
And doesn’t the white page
seem unfinished
without the dark stain
of alphabets?
When God demanded light,
he didn’t banish darkness.
Instead he invented
ebony and crows
and that small mole
on your left cheekbone.
Or did you mean to ask
“Why are you sad so often?”
Ask the moon.
Ask what it has witnessed.
(c) Linda Pastan
I discovered and fell in love with Linda Pastan’s poetry several days ago while searching for poems about bread. I found a lovely one by Linda which you can read here. And I spent a delightful few hours discovering and reading more of her poetry. I chose the one above because there is also a great film on you tube of Linda reading the poem…and because I couldn’t get it out of my mind. It is so light and simple, yet so profound.
Why Are Your Poems so Dark? is from her book QUEEN OF A RAINY COUNTRY. Many thanks Linda, for arranging permission for it to be published on Tuesday Poem.
An extract from Linda’s page with the American Academy of Poets reads thus.
In 1932, Linda Pastan was born to a Jewish family in the Bronx. She graduated from Radcliffe College and received an MA from Brandeis University. She is the author of Traveling Light (W. W. Norton & Co., 2011); Queen of a Rainy Country (2006); The Last Uncle (2002); Carnival Evening: New and Selected Poems 1968-1998 (1998), which was nominated for the National Book Award; An Early Afterlife (l995); Heroes In Disguise (1991), The Imperfect Paradise (1988), a nominee for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; PM/AM: New and Selected Poems (l982), which was nominated for the National Book Award; The Five Stages of Grief (l978), and A Perfect Circle of Sun (l971). Click here for the whole page which also includes more of her poetry.
Return to Tuesday Poem when you are ready and read work from another American poet on the hub page; this week edited by Eileen Moller.
gurglewords 
Lovely poem – I too like LInda Pastan and I’ve got her collection Queen of a Rainy country. thanks for posting this.
How serendipitous! I have only just discovered her, which seems strange when she has written so many lovely poems.:-)
This is new poet for me, Helen – I haven’t encountered her before either! I particularly love the ‘Bread’ poem – those last lines with the Hansel and Gretal crumbs are so magical. Will have to go on a reading spree of Linda’s poetry, like yourself! 🙂
I’m so glad you read the ‘Bread’ one too ELizabeth. It’s very mindful of the bread-making process isn’t it? And to anyone reading this I say do take a look at ELizabeth’s bread poem, The Hare. You’ll find it at
https://gurglewords.wordpress.com/2013/02/
Really nice. So sparse and yet full. Glad to see this too — and what a prolific poet, based on this brief bio and listing of her books. Wonderful.
Yes I agree with your comment Michelle…such a lot said in a few words.
I look forward to reading more of Linda’s work myself.