What the Earth Seemed to Say

Marie Howe is the author of five books of poetry. Her retrospective, What the Earth Seemed to Say: New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2024), draws on four collections published in the US: Magdalene (W.W. Norton, 2017), which was longlisted for the National Book Award; The Kingdom of Ordinary Time (W.W. Norton, 2009), which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; What the Living Do (W.W. Norton, 1998); and The Good Thief (Persea Books, 1988), which was selected by Margaret Atwood for the 1987 National Poetry Series. What the Living Do is in many ways an elegy for Marie Howe’s brother John, who died from AIDS in 1989. She also co-edited the anthology In the Company of My Solitude: American Writing from the AIDS Pandemic (Persea Books, 1995).Born in 1950 in Rochester, New York, Marie Howe worked as a newspaper reporter and teacher before receiving her MFA from Columbia University in 1983. Stanley Kunitz selected her for a Lavan Younger Poets Award from the Academy of American Poets in 1988. Her other awards include the 2015 Academy of American Poets Fellowship, as well as grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Bunting Institute, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She served as the first Poet Laureate of New York State from 2012 to 2014, and is poet in residence at The Cathedral Church of St John the Divine in New York City. She has taught at Tufts University and Dartmouth College, among other institutions. In 2018 she was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. She currently teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in New York City.

To appreciate Howe’s work, I want you to imagine poetry that’s been stripped back to its barest elements, yet it remains poetic and has a mood that carries us; a poetry of direct statement and simple language that never quite feels direct or simple.

• New Poems (2023)13 Prologue15 Postscript16 Practicing18 The Saw, The Drill19 Reincarnation21 Another Theory of Time22 Persephone23 Persephone, in the meadow24 Persephone and Demeter25 Advent26 What the Earth Seemed to Say, 202028 The Letter, 196829 The Forest30 The Maples31 Jack and the Moon32 Before33 Seventy34 The Willows35 Hymn37 The Singularityfrom The Good Thief (1987)41 Part of Eve’s Discussion42 Death, the Last Visit43 What the Angels Left45 The Meadow47 The Split50 What Belongs to Us52 Gretel, from a sudden clearing55 Keeping Still56 Without Devotion58 Sorrow59 Mary’s Argument60 Encounterfrom What the Living Do (1997)65 The Boy66 Sixth Grade68 Buying the Baby70 Practicing71 The Attic73 The Copper Beech74 The Game76 The Girl77 The Dream78 For Three Days80 Just Now81 A Certain Light83 How Some of It Happened85 The Last Time86 The Promise87 The Cold Outside88 The Grave90 The Gate91 One of the Last Days92 Late Morning93 Watching Television95 Separation96 Prayer98 Reunion99 The Kiss101 My Dead Friends102 What the Living Do104 Buddyfrom The Kingdom of Ordinary Time (2008)107 The Star Market108 Reading Ovid110 After the Movie112 Limbo113 Easter114 Marriage115 Prayer116 Courage117 Why the Novel Is Necessary but Sometimes Hard to Read119 Government120 Poems from The Life of Mary120 Sometimes the moon121 Once or twice or three times122 How you can’t move moonlight123 You think this happened only once?124 Annunciation125 My Mother’s Body126 Before the Fire127 Fifty128 Hurry129 The Spell131 The Snow Storm132 Mary (Reprise)from Magdalene (2017)135 Before the Beginning136 Magdalene—The Seven Devils139 On Men, Their Bodies140 How the Story Started141 Thorns142 The Affliction144 Magdalene: The Addict145 The Landing146 The Teacher147 The Disciples148 Magdalene on Gethsemane149 Calvary150 Low Tide, Late August151 The Adoption: When the Girl Arrived152 Conversation: Dualism153 The News155 Walking Home156 The Map157 Waiting at the River158 Christmas Eve159 Two Animals160 The Teacher161 Fourteen162 Adaptation164 October165 Delivery166 Magdalene at the Theopoetics Conference167 One Day168 Magdalene Afterwards171 Acknowledgements172 Index of Titles and First Lines