a found poem: L.M. Montgomery’s Emily of New Moon
She was a soft woman always
overwhelmed by a dark burning grief
that came to her
like no shabby stranger
but as something as certain and saucy
as the madcap moon.
She always felt that life had some golden secret
that she could never wholly see
and this hurt her
rasped at her, was unendurable.
She cried out for the old days
full of sacred scribblings and vivid red music
but she couldn’t have them
and the sense of loss was terrible to her;
she missed being a little child
in the tiny yellow house
by the gulf with the father that loved her.
She had been so content
to be human then.
Nazifa Islam is the author of the poetry collections Searching for a Pulse (Whitepoint Press) and Forlorn Light: Virginia Woolf Found Poems (Shearsman Books). Her poems, fiction, and paintings have appeared in The Missouri Review, The Account, The Southern Review, RHINO, The Rumpus, Waxwing, and Beloit Poetry Journal among other publications. Her work has been selected for inclusion in The Best American Poetry anthology series and The Wigleaf Top 50. You can find her @nafoopal.