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.

~ Linda Pastan

(This is from a newsletter I follow. It's written by someone who I came across very oddly, a former actress by the name of Lisa Jakub. She gave up acting and has, instead, become...thoughful. Her substack is here, if you're interested.

But the thing is that almost immediately after posting the personal piece that precedes this I ran across the wonderful Pastan poem in her newsletter and it fit perfectly with my mood. 

So. There.