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My Dead Friends

Marie Howe

My friends are dead who were

the arches the pillars of my life

the structural relief when

the world gave none.

My friends who knew me as I knew them

their bodies folded into the ground or burnt to ash.

If I got on my knees

might I lift my life as a turtle carries her home?

Who if I cried out would hear me?

My friends—with whom I might have spoken of this—are gone.

Marie Howe was born in 1950 in Rochester, New York. She worked as a newspaper reporter and teacher before receiving her MFA from Columbia University in 1983. She currently serves as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

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About this Poem

“The poem speaks about Jason Shinder, Tony Hoagland, Lucie Brock-Broido, and Richard McCann: great souls, brilliant writers, beloved friends. The italicized line is from The Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke. The first complete line of the first elegy is ‘Who, if I called out, would hear me among the angels’ hierarchies?’”
—Marie Howe

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What the Living Do

Johnny, the kitchen sink has been clogged for days, some utensil probably fell down there.
And the Drano won’t work but smells dangerous, and the crusty dishes have piled up

waiting for the plumber I still haven’t called. This is the everyday we spoke of.
It’s winter again: the sky’s a deep, headstrong blue, and the sunlight pours through

Marie Howe

1998

What the Silence Said

Do you still believe in borders now?

Birds soar over your maps and walls, and always have.

You might have watched how the smoke from your own fires

travelled on wind you couldn’t see

wafting over the valley

and up and over the hills and over the next valley and the next hill.

Marie Howe

2021

Singularity

^{(after Stephen Hawking)}

Do you sometimes want to wake up to the singularity
we once were?

so compact nobody
needed a bed, or food or money—

nobody hiding in the school bathroom
or home alone

pulling open the drawer
where the pills are kept.

Marie Howe

2019

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My Dead Friends

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