An anticipated new volume from Marie Howe whose “poetry is luminous, intense, eloquent, rooted in abundant inner life” (Stanley Kunitz). Hurrying through errands, attending a dying mother, helping her own child down the playground slide, the speaker in these poems wonders: what is the difference between the self and the soul? The secular and the sacred? Where is the kingdom of heaven? And how does one live in Ordinary Time―during those periods that are not apparently miraculous?

The Kingdom of Ordinary Time: Poems

Literature & Fiction

Howe, Marie

Poetry

W.W.Norton&Company

"What the Living Do. . . is a deeply beautiful book, with the fierce galloping pace of a great novel."―Boston Globe 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 shriek as a song. It is a genuinely feminine form . . . a poetry of intimacy, witness, honesty, and relation" (Boston Globe).

What the Living Do: Poems

“Marie Howe’s poetry is luminous, intense, and eloquent, rooted in an abundant inner life.”―Stanely Kunitz
Magdalene imagines the biblical figure of Mary Magdalene as a woman who embodies the spiritual and sensual, alive in a contemporary landscape―hailing a cab, raising a child, listening to news on the radio. Between facing the traumas of her past and navigating daily life, the narrator of Magdalene yearns for the guidance of her spiritual teacher, a Christ figure, whose death she continues to grieve. Erotic, spirited, and searching for meaning, she is a woman striving to be the subject of her own life, fully human and alive to the sacred in the mortal world.

Magdalene: Poems

"A deeply beautiful book, with the fierce galloping pace of a great novel."―Liz Rosenberg Boston Globe 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 shriek as a song. It is a genuinely feminine form . . . a poetry of intimacy, witness, honesty, and relation" (Boston Globe).

Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize: “Thought-provoking, poignant, brutal, amusing, and always beautiful.”―Elizabeth Berg Hurrying through errands, attending a dying mother, helping her own child down the playground slide, the speaker in these poems wonders: what is the difference between the self and the soul? The secular and the sacred? Where is the kingdom of heaven? And how does one live in Ordinary Time―during those apparently unmiraculous periods of everyday trouble and joy?

“Gorgeous, ferocious, lacerating, sexy, and profoundly compassionate.”―Michael Cunningham
Magdalene imagines the biblical figure of Mary Magdalene as a woman who embodies the spiritual and sensual, alive in a contemporary landscape―hailing a cab, raising a child, listening to news on the radio. Between facing the traumas of her past and navigating daily life, the narrator of Magdalene yearns for the guidance of her spiritual teacher, a Christ figure, whose death she continues to grieve. Erotic, spirited, and searching for meaning, she is a woman striving to be the subject of her own life, fully human and alive to the sacred in the mortal world.

The heralded debut collection of poems by the author of What the Living Do (Norton, 1997). Selected by Margaret Atwood as a winner in the 1987 Open Competition of the National Poetry Series, this unique collection was the first sounding of a deeply authentic voice. Howe's early writings concern relationship, attachment, and loss, in a highly original search for personal transcendence. Many of the thirty-four poems in The Good Thief appeared in such prestigious journals and periodicals as The Atlantic, The American Poetry Review, Poetry, Ploughshares, The Agni Review, and The Partisan Review.

The Good Thief (The National Poetry Series)

Persea

Review\nEssays, memoirs and letters blend to reveal courage, stamina and love in the face of AIDS in this country, tracing both the magnitude of the disease and the emotions of individuals confronted with it. The idea was to create a broad spectrum of dialogue considering the plight of AIDS: this is achieved in a fine collection. -- Midwest Book Review\nFrom Publishers Weekly\n"We wanted to collect writing that was smart, funny, reflective, angry, and immediate," says Howe (editor of Poets for Life) in his introduction. Thanks to this broad perspective, the editors have successfully pulled together many voices and viewpoints into a balanced and accomplished collection that includes unknown and often unidentified writers along with Mark Doty, Paul Monette and Harold Brodkey. The late Iris de la Cruz, a former prostitute, drug user and emergency medical technician, writes plainly and openly about her past and about feeling "like I was the only woman in the world with AIDS. It was all gay white men." Christine Boose tells how her best friend from high school discovered she was HIV-positive when she got pregnant, then killed herself. One of several anonymous contributors, a 21-year-old college student, ruminates on why she continues to have unsafe sex, while another anonymous contributor mourns the passing of her drug-addicted daughter, "her girl-child ravaged and addicted and hunted down like an animal." Denise Ribble relates a bizarre incident from New York City's Community Health Project: a woman calls and asks whether she's at risk because she's a lesbian vampire who consumes the menstrual blood of other women. "If I'm really a vampire, I don't have anything to worry about because I'm immortal. But if I'm just a fucked-up woman who drinks other women's blood, I'm at risk aren't I?" Some of this writing is very intense, some is more reflective, but all of it contributes to creating an effective whole. 
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In the Company of My Solitude: American Writing from the AIDS Pandemic

New and Selected Poems

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Howe, Marie. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Howe, Marie

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Howe, Marie. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Kingdom of Ordinary Time: Poems

What the Living Do: Poems

Magdalene: Poems

What the Living Do: Poems

The Kingdom of Ordinary Time: Poems

Magdalene: Poems

The Good Thief (The National Poetry Series)

In the Company of My Solitude: American Writing from the AIDS Pandemic

New and Selected Poems