Transcript Document

Biography
List of
Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
Marie Howe
Created by: Abigail
Berger
Biography
List of
Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
Biography
Marie Howe: The Writer with True Intensity
“Marie Howe’s poetry is luminous, intense, and eloquent, rooted in an abundant
inner life (MarieHowe.com)
This quote from Marie’s former instructor Stanley Kunitz gives insight to the
quality of Marie Howe’s poetry. Marie Howe was born in 1950 in Rochester, New
York. She was the oldest of nine children. As a child Howe attended the Sacred
Heart Convent School and later earned her undergraduates degree at the
University of Windsor. Howe worked as a teacher and newspaper reporter before
getting her Masters in Fine Arts. Howe’s brother, John, died in 1989 due to aids
related causes. Howe also suffered a huge loss when her grandfather died. These
events took quite a toll on Howe and made her change her aesthetic on life
entirely. Howe currently lives in New York with her daughter and teaches at the
Sarah Lawrence University New York and New York University (“Marie Howe”,
(Poetryfoundation.org).
Howe was not very serious about pursuing a career in poetry until she turned 30.
Howe took interest when she was accepted into Columbia University, and was
under the instruction of Stanley Kunitz. 1983 she got her Masters in Fine Arts.
Howe had taken to poetry very well and was very talented in her writing. Howe
has won numerous awards and honors: fellowship at the Bunting Institute,
Guggenheim fellowship, National Endowment for Arts fellowship and the 1987
open competition of the National Poetry Series. Howe’s poetry was influenced by
the death of her brother and grandfather (MarieHowe.com). Her instructor,
Stanley Kunitz had a huge impact on her. He is what really got her into writing
(“Marie Howe”, Poetryfoundation.org)
Biography
List of
Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
Biography Cont.
Howe’s poetry is very metaphorical and has an intense quality. Her poetry is often
a reflection of what goes on throughout her life. Howe likes to eliminate all the
everyday influences and really take a look at life. “This might be the most difficult
task for us in postmodern life: not to look away from what is actually happening.
To put down the i-pod and email and phone. To look long enough so we can look
through it like a window,” notes Howe on the writing of poetry (poets.org). Howe
has a collection of poems written about her brother, for example. Howe has a
loves using metaphors. For example, in the poem ‘Once or Twice or Three Times I
Saw Something’ Howe uses that consuming swirling wind that ‘breathes’ up
everything in its path as a metaphor to the way the superficial and material is
consuming reality and the natural world. She says that poetry is, “Simply telling
somebody something (blueflowerarts.com).” Howe does not see writing poetry as
a job but a true passion. She will be known for her intense and even disturbing
poetry. Howe has many poems that get to the meaning and sometimes disturbing
truth and reality. Howe’s poem ‘What the Living Do’ asks why some yearn to be
living since, in reality, sometimes life isn’t so great ‘This is it. Parking. Slamming
the car door shut in the cold. What you called that yearning’ (The Atlantic.com).
Howe is a very talented poet and puts a lot of thought and feeling into her poetry.
She is a poet with a brilliant quality to her work and her poetry makes a person
think. It’s deep and thought inspiring. Howe should forever be known for pulling
off such difficult writing so well. Marie Howe is truly a writer of luminous poetry
(blueflowerarts.com).
Biography
List of Works
Marie Howe Collection of
Poems
List of
Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
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Poems
Bibliography
From the Good Thief:
“Part of Eve’s Discussion”
“Death, the last visit”
“What the Angels Left”
“The Mountain”
“The Meadow”
“From Nowhere”
“Bad Weather”
“Providing for Each Other”
“Menses”
“The Thin Smattering
Applause”
“The Split”
“What Belongs to Us”
“Recovery”
“Gretel, from a sudden
clearing”
“Song of the Spinster”
“Keeping Still”
“Apology”
“Retribution”
“Grosvenor Road”
“The Beast”
“How Many Times”
“Letter to My Sister”
“Isaac”
“The Wise Men”
“Without Devotion”
“Guests”
“The Good Reason for Our”
“Forgetting”
“Sorrow”
“Lullaby”
“The Unforgiven”
“Veteran’s Day”
“Mary’s Argument”
“Encounter”
“What the Living Do”
“The Boy”
“Sixth Grade”
“The Fort”
“From my Father’s Side of the
Bed”
“Buying the Baby”
"Practicing”
“The Mother”
“In the Movies”
“The Attic”
“Beth”
“The Fruit Cellar”
“The Copper Beech”
“The Game”
“The Girl”
“The Dream”
“For Three Days”
“Just Now”
“A Certain Light”
“How Some of it Happened”
1989”
“The Last Time”
“Without Music”
“Pain”
“Faulkner”
“The Promise”
“The Cold Outside”
“The Grave”
“The Gate”
“One of the Last Days”
“Late Morning”
“Wanting a Child”
“Tulips”
“Watching Television”
“The Dream”
“More”
“Separation”
“The Bird”
“Prayer”
“Two of Three Times”
“Reunion”
“The Kiss”
“Yesterday”
Memorial
My Dead Friends
The Visit
The New Life
What the Living Do
Buddy
Biography
List of
Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
Once or Twice or Three Times I Saw Something by Marie Howe
ONCE OR TWICE OR THREE TIMES, I SAW SOMETHING
Once or twice or three times, I saw something
rise from the dust in the yard, like the soul
of the dust, or from the field, the soul-body
of the field – rise and hover like a veil in the sun
billowing – as if I could see the wind itself.
I thought I did it – squinting – but I didn’t.
As if the edges of things blurred – so what was in
bled out, breathed up and mingled: bush and cow
and dust and well: breathed a field I walked through
waist high, as through high grass or water, my fingers
swirling through it – or it through me. I saw it.
It was thing and spirit both: the real
world: evident, invisible.
Biography
List of
Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
Analysis of Once or Twice or Three
Times I Saw Something
Analysis
In the poem “Once or Twice or Three Times, I Saw Something”
Marie Howe uses a very metaphorical way of writing to get at an
important issue; seeing the world for what it truly is and not letting
vision be blurred by all the superficial. This poem is about how
people get so caught up in all the material items of this world that
they almost forget what is really important and delude themselves
of true reality. Howe uses a strong metaphor in the line ‘As if the
edges blurred-so what was in bled out, breathed up and mingled:
bush and cow and dust as well’. This is all a metaphor; it compares
this all-consuming ‘thing’ to the technology and the, not to sound
repetitive, superficial material of the world. ‘It breathes up bush
and cow and dust as well’, the material world is consuming the
natural world. Howe’s use of metaphors is truly amazing. A
metaphor is when one thing is being represented or compared to
another. This metaphor is incredibly strong and it helps the reader
better understand what is truly happening. People are forgetting
what the real world looks like. They would be lost without the cell
phone, the i-pod, the computer, etc. Could they ever just sit and see
the true beauty of this earth around them? ‘It was thing and spirit
both; the real world; evident, invisible.’ There is so much that is
important and it’s all around but the people are so blinded by
Biography
List of
Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
The Gate by Marie Howe
The Gate by Marie Howe is talking about her brother and his death. It tells of his
time 0n earth and how Howe grieves for him. I like this poem because it is
serious and remorseful but at the same time it is not an extremely depressing
poem. It simply tells of his life and you can truly tell Howe cared and loved her
brother. I feel compassion in her writing and it makes me think about what I’d do
if I didn’t have my sister or baby brother. After reading this it made me think
about if I’d have these thoughts if one of them was to leave. This is a very
thought inspiring poem.
The Gate By Marie Howe
I had no idea that the gate I would step through
to finally enter this world
would be the space my brother's body made. He was
a little taller than me: a young man
but grown, himself by then,
done at twenty-eight, having folded every sheet,
rinsed every glass he would ever rinse under the cold
and running water.
This is what you have been waiting for, he used to say to me.
And I'd say, What?
And he'd say, This—holding up my cheese and mustard sandwich.
And I'd say, What?
The Promise By Marie Howe
Biography
List of
Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
In the poem ‘The Promise’ by Marie Howe she talks about empty promises. She talks about her hopes
goals and dreams but has to face the harsh reality that shows that most of these dreams will more than
likely not come true. I like this poem because it is realistic. As a realist I don’t like to read about ‘fluff’
stuff. You feel a sense of pity for this character yet you admire her ability to hope.
The Promise
In the dream I had when he came back not sick
but whole, and wearing his winter coat,
he looked at me as though he couldn't speak, as if
there were a law against it, a membrane he
couldn't break
His silence was what he could not
not do, like our breathing in this world,
like our living.
As we do, in time.
And I told him: I'm reading all this
Buddhist stuff,
Original
Poems
and listen, we don't die when we die. Death is
an event,
a threshold we pass through. We go on and on
Bibliography
and into light forever.
And he looked down, and then back up at me.
It was the look we'd pass
across the table when Dad was drunk again
and dangerous,
the level look that wants to tell you something,
in a crowded room, something important,
and can't
Biography
List of
Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
Hurry By Marie Howe
Hurry
We stop at the dry cleaners and the grocery store
and the gas station and the green market and
Hurry up honey, I say, hurry,
as she runs along two or three steps behind me
her blue jacket unzipped and her socks rolled down.
Where do I want her to hurry to? To her grave?
To mine? Where one day she might stand all grown?
Today, when all the errands are finally done, I say to her,
Honey I'm sorry I keep saying Hurry—
you walk ahead of me. You be the mother.
And, Hurry up, she says, over her shoulder, looking
back at me, laughing. Hurry up now darling, she says,
hurry, hurry, taking the house keys from my hands.
Prayer By Marie Howe
Biography
List of
Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
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Bibliography
Someone or something is leaning close to me now
trying to tell me the one true story of my life:
one note,
low as a bass drum, beaten over and over:
It’s beginning summer,
and the man I love has forgotten my smell
the cries I made when he touched me, and my laughter
when he picked me up
and carried me, still laughing, and laid me down,
among the scattered daffodils on the dining room table.
And Jane is dead,
and I want to go where she went,
where my brother went,
and whoever it is that whispered to me
when I was a child in my father’s bed is come back now:
and I can’t stop hearing
This is the way it is,
the way it always was and will be—
Biography
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Prayer Cont.
beaten over and over—panicking in
street comers,
or crouched in the back of taxicabs,
afraid I’ll cry out in jammed traffic, and
no one will know me
or know where to bring me
There it is, I almost remember,
another story:
It runs along this one like a brook beside a train.
The sparrow knows it, the grass rises with it.
The wind moves through the highest tree branches
without
seeming to hurt them.
Tell me.
Who was I when I used to call your name?
Biography
Push, Shove, Rush: Inspired by Hurry
Push, Shove, Rush by Abigail Berger
List of
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Sample
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Inspired
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The market street was a swirl of commotion
Hungry shoppers, looking for the next sale
So much running and shoving
Why can’t we take time to slow down and relax?
Stop and breathe in the tender air
Why are we rushing? And to where?
Life on earth is such a brief experience.
Take it in and drag out and delight in each moment.
Observe what transpiring around you,
No need to rush or push or shove.
Let’s not rush today.
Take a small vacation,
And really stop and learn to appreciate life.
Biography
List of
Works
Sample
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Inspired
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Destiny: Inspired by Prayer
Destiny by Abigail Berger
Someone or something is leaning close to me now
trying to tell me the one true story of my life:
Why can there only be one story?
And why are you leaning so close to me?
Can’t I take and determine my own life story?
This is not your life to live…
I will not let you take control me anymore.
So back off…get away from me!
I have now found my voice
My own destiny, my own thoughts…
You may continue your treacherous and heinous life
But I will no longer be dragged into it
You will no longer tell me how I will live…
Only I know my one true life story…
And the story is abundant with multiple stories.
Biography
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Original Poetry
Music
A way of true expression
A testament almost spoken in passion
The director of the choir
Smiling and bowing to the audience
He stares waiting for their reaction
Will there be a roar of exuberance
Or a dead silence
Will they stand
Or just sit there
Unmoving…staring….
The quiet spreads
Through the auditorium
The accompanist begins
The choir starts to sing
Their music
Biography
Original Poetry
List of
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Liam Payne by Abigail Berger
A bundle of joy
A surprise for sure
A son and apprentice for my dad
A little man for my mom to adore
A munchkin for me
A new experience for my sister (now a big sister!)
A playmate for my once only male cousin
A ready smile for whenever you’re feeling down
A good excuse to be silly
A symbol of total love and innocence
A delightful baby boy
A fill for the void we never knew existed
A bundle of joy…most definitely!
Biography
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Original Poetry: The Parallel of Genuine
and Superficial
The Genuine
Relationships are…
At times difficult
Relationships are…
Intimate
Relationships are…
Fun and sometimes even silly
Relationships are…
Made when 2 people make a real connection
Relationships are…
Sometimes made even if you know it will make your life harder
Relationships are…
Supposed to be a testament to love and honesty
Relationships are…
Between 2 individuals
Relationships are…
Difficult yet rewarding
Biography
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Original Poetry: The Parallel of
Genuine and Superficial
The Superficial
High school relationships are…
At times blissful
High school relationships are…
A topic of gossip
High school relationships are…
Full of confusion and anguish
High school relationships are…
Often made to gain popularity
High school relationships are…
Made to make social life easier
High School Relations are…
Tested by deceitfulness and phoniness
High school relationships are…
Open to anyone and everyone who feels they need to throw in their
2 cents worth
High school relationships are…
Often fun yet regrettable
Biography
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Bibliography
http://www.blueflowerarts.com/booking/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=77&Itemid=85
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/marie-howe
http://www.mariehowe.com/mariehowe.html
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/1687
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/181382
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/poetry/atlpoets/howe9404.htm
http://www.cs.umbc.edu/~stephens/POEMS/poemshowe.html
http://www.ronslate.com/kingdom_ordinary_time_poems_marie_howe_norton
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