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A review by mary_soon_lee
What the Living Do: Poems by Marie Howe
This is a short poetry collection of poems that appear to be autographical. Many of the individual poems are good. Together they are more than the sum of their parts. They evoke a density of experience in a few lines. Much of the content is dark -- abuse, illness, death, grief, separation. This darkness is offset by compassion, love, mentions of the natural world, yet it remains.
The poetry, as poetry, is effective without being ostentatious. The lines are often long, the phrasing close to narrative prose. But the condensing of weight into brevity, the intensity, is masterful.
To me, these poems, taken collectively, speak of how we walk around with the weight of the deaths of people we've loved in the background, sometimes muted, sometimes coming into focus. It's well done. It moved me. Nonetheless, greedily, and because there's a lot of darkness in the world at the moment, I found myself craving more lightness.
My two favorites among the poems were "A Certain Light" and "Without Music," though that opionion's subject to change. There were many good poems.
About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved). In the case of poetry books, for various reasons, I often omit a rating altogether.
The poetry, as poetry, is effective without being ostentatious. The lines are often long, the phrasing close to narrative prose. But the condensing of weight into brevity, the intensity, is masterful.
To me, these poems, taken collectively, speak of how we walk around with the weight of the deaths of people we've loved in the background, sometimes muted, sometimes coming into focus. It's well done. It moved me. Nonetheless, greedily, and because there's a lot of darkness in the world at the moment, I found myself craving more lightness.
My two favorites among the poems were "A Certain Light" and "Without Music," though that opionion's subject to change. There were many good poems.
About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved). In the case of poetry books, for various reasons, I often omit a rating altogether.