Hurry - A Poem by Marie Howe

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.
To mine? Where one day she might stand all grown? 
you walk ahead of me. You be the mother.

Where do I want her to hurry to? To her grave?
Today, when all the errands are finally done, I say to her, 
Honey I'm sorry I keep saying Hurry—

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.

--- Poem by by Marie Howe, 

                                                                                                       alumna of Prince Street class of 1968

Editors Note:  Marie Howe is the niece of Srs. Madeline and Margaret "Kelly" Howe, RSCJ who are both deceased.  I thought Marie's poem was befitting as we end National Poetry Month and celebrate her  appointment as 10th New York State Poet. 

Poem copyright ©2008 by Marie Howe, and reprinted from "When She Named Fire," ed., Andrea Hollander Budy, Autumn House Press, 2009. First published in "The Kingdom of the Ordinary" by Marie Howe, W.W. Norton, 2008. Used by permission of Marie Howe and the publisher. 

Prayer by Marie Howe, PS'68

from THE KINGDOM OF ORDINARY TIME,
W.W. Norton & Co. 2008

Prayer

by Marie Howe, 
alumna of Prince Street class of 1968

Every day I want to speak with you. And every day something more important 

calls for my attention -- the drugstore, the beauty products, the luggage 

I need to buy for the trip. 

Even now I can hardly sit here

among the falling piles of paper and clothing, the garbage trucks outside 

already screeching and banging. 

The mystics say you are as close as my own breath. 

Why do I flee from you? 

My days and nights pour through me like complaints 

and become a story I forgot to tell. 

Help me. Even as I write these words I am planning 

to rise from the chair as soon as I finish this sentence.

- Marie Howe, The Kingdom of Ordinary Time, W.W. Norton & Co

 Editors Note:  Marie Howe is the niece of Srs. Madeline and Margaret "Kelly" Howe, RSCJ who are both deceased.  I thought Marie's poem was befitting on this beautiful Labor Day and in celebration of her recent appointment as New York State Poet. 

Congrats to Sacred Heart Alumna Marie Howe ... Recently Named 10th State Poet of New York

Marie Howe

Marie Howe, an alumna of the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Rochester, N.Y. aka "Prince Street", acclaimed poet and member of the writing faculty at Sarah Lawrence College has recently been appointed by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo as the 10th New York State Poet.  Marie will serve from 2012-2014.

A well deserved honor indeed for this child of the Sacred Heart! Marie Howe is the author of three books of poetry*.  Additionally she is co-editor of a highly-praised anthology of writing on AIDS.  Marie's brother John died of an AIDS-related illness and in 1995 Marie and Michael Klein co-edited a collection of essays, letters and stories entitled In the Company of My Solitude: American Writing from the AIDS Pandemic.

* Editors note: Book titles and links to all of Marie's work can be found on the right of this column under "BOOKS by Sacred Heart Alum Authors"