A review by kitnotmarlowe
What the Living Do: Poems by Marie Howe

dark emotional sad slow-paced

3.75

oftentimes when i read poetry and think it is merely good, i feel guilty for not having the same transcendental experiences of other readers. obviously this isn't to say that there is a right or wrong way to divine meaning from a piece of art, but i do feel as though something was lacking in my experience. like, it's good poetry! it just didn't make me cry or give me catharsis and leave the lasting emotional impact which it has clearly had on so many other people. it's consistently good, it just never knocked my socks off! i admire the quietness and restraint howe writes with. normally, i like my poetry to be visually striking whether that's in the language used or the way it's arranged. however employing any flashy tricks would have driven the tone and the message of this collection from sombre to maudlin. howe is decidedly unsentimental in her elegy, which is where she succeeds because i have read so many poems about the vastness of death and dying and how it can make people or things or times beautiful in retrospect, but howe's poems moreso focus on the small images of life before, during, and after death. the second section which focuses most directly about the process of her brother's dying is the most uniform in its quality.