This video segment from Poetry Everywhere features Bronx born poet Linda Pastan reading her poem "Why Are Your Poems So Dark?" at the Dodge Poetry Festival. Linda Pastan’s poems use very simple language and plain statements to describe everyday situations—visiting a museum, taking care of children, listening to a message on an answering machine. But she ends up uncovering the dark worries and threats that hide just below that quiet surface of daily life.

For a biography of the poet Linda Pastan please visit the Poetry Foundation Web site.