Marie Howe
Posted in Past Guests | Tagged G-M
The 2012 State Poet for New York, Marie Howe was born in Rochester. After working as a reporter and a teacher, Howe earned her MFA from Columbia University. Howe has received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Bunting Institute, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Margaret Atwood selected her first collection, The Good Thief, for the 1987 National Poetry Series, and Howe’s most recent publication, The Kingdom of Ordinary Time, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Howe currently teaches at Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence College, and New York University. She lives in New York City with her daughter.
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.
–
From The Kingdom of the Ordinary (W.W. Norton, 2008)
Links
- Poet’s website
- “The Poetry of Ordinary Time with Marie Howe,” Interview by Krista Tippett. On Being. 25 April 2013.
- “Poet Marie Howe on ‘What the Living Do’ After Loss,” Interview by Terry Gross. Fresh Air. NPR. 19 October 2011.
Media
Seminar with Nick Flynn | October 22, 2013
Reading with Nick Flynn | October 22, 2013