What the Living Do: Poems
"What the Living Do . . . is a deeply beautiful book, with the fierce galloping pace of a great novel."— Boston GlobeInformed 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...
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"What the Living Do . . . is a deeply beautiful book, with the fierce galloping pace of a great novel."— Boston GlobeInformed 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 shriek as a song. It is a genuinely feminine form . . . a poetry of intimacy, witness, honesty, and relation" (Boston Globe).
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780393318869 (0393318869)
Publish date: April 17th 1999
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Pages no: 96
Edition language: English
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
Beyond stunning. Striking, perfectly encapsulated meditations on death, and what happens after. So heartbreaking, but also so hopeful. Too many favorites. The whole thing.
Based on Laura sending me a poem about grief which I liked, I checked this out, hoping I might find a poem to use on my grief retreat this weekend. I read it quickly on the bus, but found it dark and depressing for the most part. Even the title poem did not strike me in the same way as it did earlie...
Harrowing, important and beautiful poems.