What the Living Do: Poems
by Marie Howe
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Book Summary Information
Author: Marie HoweEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-04-01
ISBN: 0393318869
Number of pages: 96
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Book Reviews of What the Living Do: Poems
Book Review: "I am living, I remember you."
Summary: 5 Stars
This collection of poetry, reads like a novel in which Howe utilizes first person, present tense domestic narratives. What impressed me was the immediacy of these poems. The organic form of one long line followed by a shorter line creates a dramatic effect of a leading breath. These highly accessible poems have an epistemological and cognitive bent: Howe doesn't muddle her readers with loose tangents and inconsequential associations. She portrays amazingly vivid moments without overstating. In a succinct manner, the poet describes volumes in concrete language. The eloquency of her poetry is its simplicity.
The poems in the first section examine what we do as children to unveil our new world. We learn from our older siblings (The Boy); we learn to ask, seek, and sometimes demand help (Sixth Grade); we experience and experiment (Practicing); we liken our world to the fantastical (The Mother and In The Movies); we come to understand the value of being a confidant (Beth); we distinguish the difference between the public and the private (The Fruit Cellar); and we learn how to control our environment (The Game). These are seemingly personal anecdotes for the poet but which have universal meaning. Literal and figurative parallelism is applied in The Attic where the brother is, "building the imaginary building/on the drawing board...." And later, when his sister needs him emotionally, "he's building a world..." a safe haven for her. These moments are bittersweet, savory, palpable.
The second section confronts death and dying. When the speaker thinks her brother has died, the poet uses repetition to create tension and frustration: "and we couldn't wake him,/we couldn't wake him...." In The Last Time, Howe concisely creates an image of wealth and purity with a discussion about mortality (when the sick brother asks the sister to face her own death). My favorite poem in this section is The Grave - where Howe's a sensory master. The grave is symbolic of what we take, what we leave, and what we do in the middle. Trekking in stiletto heels from the grave after the family has proceeded ahead of her, the speaker notes, "ovals and dots, fat exclamation marks,/walking inside the steps of my brothers and sisters."
This third section regards the speaker as an adult dealing with loss and love. Contemplative with self-awareness to the highest degree, Howe's poetry is breathless and soft, with minimal exposition. An example f this is in the poem Late Morning: "and we sat like that for a few minutes, without saying much of anything,/my cheek pressed lightly/against his cheek...." Howe reminds us that so much depends on a moment. At times her poems lead us to certain revelations: in Watching Television, Howe writes, "Anything I've ever tried to keep by force I've lost.." In Reunion, she uses a fresh analogy for two people struggling to remain afloat in love, "the dripping of the oars/and the knock and creak of them moving in the rusty locks."
Howe works under a high level of consciousness that she gifts to her readers. She refuses to spoon-feed us; she leads us to water but doesn't force the imbibe. Howe evokes a whole gamut of feelings with her precise diction and her purity of voice. In the last section, her title poem is an honest look at minutiae and being so engrossed with it until you finally force yourself to take a moment, take a breath, and remember.... And that's just what this book begs.
By far, a powerfully present and celebratory collection of poems. With resoluteness and clarity, Howe has produced a book of poems that's illuminating and proud. This, from the title poem: "...What you finally gave up. We want the spring to come and the winter to pass. We want/ whoever to call or not call, a letter, a kiss - we want more and more and then more of it./ But there are moments, walking, when I catch a glimpse of myself in the window glass,/ say, the window of the corner video store, and I'm gripped by a cherishing so deep/ for my own blowing hair, chapped face, and unbuttoned coat that I'm speechless:/ I am living, I remember you."
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