What the Living Do

Marie Howe’s poem “What the Living Do” was originally published in The Atlantic in 1994. W.W. Norton published the poem in a poetry collection of the same name in 1997. Howe originally wrote “What the Living Do” as a letter to her brother John, who died from AIDS complications in 1989. In the poem, Howe addresses her brother, describing mundane details of her life and reflecting on the complex emotions and new awareness she feels in the wake of his loss. “What the Living Do” is influenced by Confessional poetry, and by Howe's brother John’s life and death. It typifies Howe’s plain-spoken style and slow, spiritual gravitas. It is one of her most well-known works.

Poet Biography

The eldest of nine children, Marie Howe was born in Rochester, New York in 1950. She attended Sacred Heart Convent School and the University of Windsor in Ontario. She worked briefly as a newspaper reporter and as a high school teacher. At age 30, after encouragement in a writing workshop, she entered an MFA program at Columbia University. She studied with the poet Stanley Kunitz, and graduated in 1983. Howe’s first book of poetry, The Good Thief, was selected by Margaret Atwood as the winner of the National Poetry Series’ Open Competition in 1987, and won a Lavan Younger Poets Prize from the American Academy of Poets. In 1997, “What the Living Do” garnered further critical and public acclaim. Howe published The Kingdom of Ordinary Time in 2009—a return to and development of the spiritual and metaphysical writing style of The Good Thief. Her 2017 collection, Magdalene, a modern and contemplative illustration of the biblical figure Mary Magdalene, was longlisted for the National Book Award. Howe’s poetry has been printed in numerous publications including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Agni, Poetry, Ploughshares, and Harvard Review.

The death of her younger brother John in 1989 profoundly impacted Howe’s life and writing style. While The Good Thief is characterized by Biblical and mythical language and metaphor, “What the Living Do” tends toward concrete realism and accessibility. In 1995, she co-edited a collection of writing called In the Company of My Solitude: American Writing from the AIDS Pandemic. Since John’s death, Howe has been involved in AIDS awareness and relief programs.

Howe received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1992, and a Guggenheim fellowship in 1998. She has taught creative writing at Tufts University, Warren Wilson College, Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence College, and New York University. She was named New York State Poet in 2012, and presently lives in New York City with her daughter.

Poem Text

Howe, Marie. “What the Living Do.” 1998. Academy of American Poets.

Summary

Addressed to “Johnny,” “What the Living Do” begins with a description of a clogged kitchen sink, dangerous-smelling Drano, and piles of dirty dishes. The speaker suspects that “some utensil” (Line 1) is stopping up the drain. The speaker hopes that the plumber will come, but has not yet called them. It is winter. Sunlight is coming through the windows, which are open, because the heat is set too high in the house, and the speaker “can’t turn it off” (Line 5).

The speaker mentions various mundane, daily activities—driving, spilling coffee, closing car doors, walking across the “wobbly bricks in the Cambridge sidewalk” (Line 8), buying a hairbrush, and carrying and dropping a grocery bag which breaks in the street. Johnny “finally gave up” (Line 11) these things, and the speaker remembers Johnny’s attitudes about everyday life. The speaker nods to human desires, referencing “yearning” (Line 10) and wanting the “winter to pass” (Line 11). Finally, the poem moves to a description of the speaker seeing their windblown reflection, messy hair, and unbuttoned coat in the window of a corner video store and ends with a short reflection on life and death: “I am living. I remember you” (Line 16).