Linda Pastan

Biography

Linda Pastan’s twelfth book of poems, Queen of a Rainy Country, was published by Norton in 2006. She was Poet Laureate of Maryland from 1991 to 1995 and has been a finalist twice for the National Book Award. She won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize in 2003.

See Work

POETRY / Spring 2001

The Last Uncle

By Linda Pastan

The last uncle is pushing off
in his funeral skiff (the usual
black limo) having locked
the doors behind him
on a whole generation.

POETRY / Winter 1981

November

By Linda Pastan

It is an old drama
this disappearance of the leaves,
this seeming death
of the landscape.

POETRY / Spring 2001

Frances and Mary Allen, Sewing Group, Ca. 1900

By Linda Pastan

The three fates in dark
skirts and starched shirtwaists
bend over their work,

POETRY / Winter 1981

What We Want

By Linda Pastan

What we want
is never simple.
We move among the things

POETRY / Spring 2001

A Glass of Cold Water

By Linda Pastan

Poetry is not a code
to be broken
but a way of seeing
with the eyes shut,

POETRY / Spring 1979

Eyes Only

By Linda Pastan

Dear lost sharer
of silences,
I would send you a letter

POETRY / Summer 1985

Last Will

By Linda Pastan

Children,
when I am ash
read by the light of the fire
that consumes me

POETRY / Winter 1993

What We Fear Most

By Linda Pastan

We have been saved one more time
from what we fear most.