"Why Are Your Poems So Dark?", by Linda Pastan

Toni Goodman shared this poem with us in her Poetry Circle, honoring Linda Pastan, a few days after she died.

Toni writes: "Linda Pastan, "poet of concentrated beauty" as described by the Washington Post in their obituary, died on January 30.

She was 90 years old and published 15 volumes of poetry- the last one this past October."

Thank you very much for sharing this with us, Toni!

Why Are Your Poems So Dark?

Linda Pastan

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.

Note: "Why Are Your Poems So Dark" reminds me of another poem I particularly like, "Sweet Darkness", by David Whyte

Yoga & Dance with Susana