What the Living Do: Poems
by Marie Howe
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Informed by the death of a beloved brother, here are the stories of childhood, its thicket of sex and sorrow and joy, boys and girls growing into men and women, stories of a brother who in his dying could teach how to be most alive. What the Living Do reflects "a new form of confessional poetry, one shared to some degree by other women poets such as Sharon Olds and Jane Kenyon. Unlike the earlier confessional poetry of Plath, Lowell, Sexton et al., Howe's writing is not so much a moan or a show more shriek as a song. It is a genuinely feminine form . . . a poetry of intimacy, witness, honesty, and relation" (Boston Globe). show lessTags
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Member Reviews
I found Marie Howe’s book to be very moving and surprisingly spicy. Some of the poems are her “famous” ones that I have heard many times, but I feel like I really understand her mind better and have even greater respect for her having read the collection as a whole. It’s really cohesive and gave me a powerful meditation on grief and longing, for the heart as much as the mind. I definitely treasure these poems.
I'm just going to make this short. This is one of my all-time favorite books of poetry. This was my second time reading it and it was just as amazing this time through. I hope I can one day get my poetry to be as powerful as Howe's
Happy to add this to my collection of books. This one is really spectacular in giving a peek inside the grieving mind.
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. I love these poems.
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Author Information
9+ Works 991 Members
Marie Howe is the former poet laureate of New York and the author of three previous collections. Magdalene was longlisted for the National Book Award. Howe teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in New York City.
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- Languages
- English
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- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4
- ASINs
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