What the Living Do

Marie Howe has made the personal context of “What the Living Do” very clear. In 1989, Howe’s brother John died from AIDS complications. Despite a large age gap and many other siblings, Marie and John were very close, and would almost daily talk on the phone. In an interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s interview program "Fresh Air," Howe says she began “What the Living Do” when she “decided to quit writing poems all day, and just write John a letter.” Whether or not the particular details about the sink and errands are accurate to Howe’s experience, the addressee, “Johnny,” is based on her real-life younger brother. In a 2018 interview with David Elliot, Howe said “John’s living and dying changed my aesthetic entirely... I wanted after that to make an art that was transparent, that was accessible to people who don’t usually read poetry.” Howe’s intentional shift in aesthetic style led to What the Living Do (the book of the same title as the poem) her most well-known book.

The contextual information, then, is important for several reasons. It gives the reader a better understanding of the poet’s intentions. Without this information, the reader might assume that the kitchen sink is clogged and the thermostat is broken because those household issues would otherwise have been handled by Johnny, likely a departed husband or domestic partner.