Why So Sad, Little Girl?

On my recent trip to the library I grabbed a poetry anthology as well as multiple bead books. I had a moment today and I opened it to be faced with a good many of the most commonly anthologized poems. I was really hoping for some newer stuff actually, so after re-reading a few old favorites, I Googled Linda Pastan. There was a poem I read awhile ago that I wanted to re-read.

I found it here on Norton Poets Online.

why are your poems so dark?

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.


I'm always amazed at what haunts me forever and what simply passes along the the surface of my mind without leaving any impression whatsoever. I'm not sure why this one stuck in my head. I don't think of her poetry as dark, but it does have a certain gravity.

Perhaps because it echos things that I've thought before. Perhaps because I, like everyone else, have often been misunderstood and often been seen through. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference.

Not that I'm sad right now. Rather, something's going on in my head, and I'm not sure what it is yet.

Hands Across Time