" What the Living Do . . . is a deeply beautiful book, with the fierce galloping pace of a great novel."― Boston Globe Informed by the death of a beloved brother, here are the stories of childhood, its thicket of sex and sorrow and joy, boys and girls growing into men and women, stories of a brother who in his dying could teach how to be most alive. What the Living Do reflects "a new form of confessional poetry, one shared to some degree by other women poets such as Sharon Olds and Jane Kenyon. Unlike the earlier confessional poetry of Plath, Lowell, Sexton et al., Howe's writing is not so much a moan or a shriek as a song. It is a genuinely feminine form . . . a poetry of intimacy, witness, honesty, and relation" ( Boston Globe ). This compassionate memorial to illness and the loss of Howe's brother, John, and other friends ably depicts the growth and development of personal bonds against which "post-modern brokenness" is measured. (Howe has also coedited an important collection of essays about AIDS, In the Company of My Solitude, LJ 7/95). This thoughtful analysis of elements of grief ("a living remedy") will perhaps help to ease trauma of death, as does Robert Frost's "Home Burial," but full comprehension of "cherishing" and pain after "the wake and the funeral" seems impossible. The best of these empathetic poems demonstrate a longing for wholeness and appreciation of the "terrified and radiant" mysteries of silence. Sharing "a secret, unrecoverable history" of father, brothers, sisters, and friends?"what the living do"?Howe creates the first draft of a contemporary woman's spiritual biography. For larger collections.?Frank Allen, North Hampton Community Coll., Tannersville, Pa. Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. The Attic Beth The Bird The Boy Buddy Buying The Baby A Certain Light The Cold Outside The Copper Beech The Dream The Dream Faulkner For Three Days The Fort From My Father's Side Of The Bed The Fruit Cellar The Game The Gate The Girl The Grave How Some Of It Happened In The Movies Just Now The Kiss The Last Time Late Morning Memorial More The Mother My Dead Friends The New Life One Of The Last Days Pain Practicing Prayer The Promise Reunion Rochester, New York, July 1989 Separation Sixth Grade Tulips Two Or Three Times The Visit Wanting A Child Watching Television What The Living Do Without Music Yesterday -- Table of Poems from Poem Finder® Marie Howe is the former poet laureate of New York and the author of three previous collections. Magdalene was longlisted for the National Book Award. Howe teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in New York City.