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Ep. 126: "My Mother’s Body" by Marie Howe
Whether this is your first time listening to this show, or your 100th time, allow me to take this opportunity to remind you that all my introductions here, every episode of this podcast, my thoughts are only one perspective.
The thing about poetry—and from doing this podcast I’ve started to think about poetry not as a piece of writing on a page or screen, but as a transcendent moment of being, a fleeting glimpse of the oneness of the universe, an experience of divine wisdom, whatever divinity might mean, and that the great poem, or great song, or great work of art, is nothing more than an attempt to capture that experience—so the thing about poetry is that speaks to all of us in different ways.
You know that feeling when you look upon a portrait hanging in a gallery, and the eyes follow you round. As if the artwork is seeking you, or seeing you. That’s how I feel about poems too. All this to say that whatever I might say about these poems, in every episode, is just one very incomplete perspective, and that if this poem, or any poem here, speaks to you in a different way or shows you a different direction, please allow yourself to follow it, even if it disregards completely anything I might say here.
Why I chose My Mother’s Body by Marie Howe.
I read another poem by Marie Howe back in Episode 77. That was What The Living Do, and some of the things I felt there—things that relate to this passing miracle of being alive—I felt here too. In both poems there is a close relative who is no longer here, and the poems jump backwards and forwards in a sort of fabric of life. Where being itself, and all our memories, hopes, dreams, regrets, fears, are all interwoven. Where there is, almost, no past or future, just a single and strange neverending present.
The way time works in My Mother’s Body is mesmerising. We are with Marie Howe in the womb, we are with her after her mother’s death. In nine sentences we experience two lives, a mother and a daughter.
You can read the poem here
***
For a detailed outline of the mission and purpose behind this podcast, please check out Episode 100, "Why Poems for the Speed of Life?", in your podcast player or click here to listen on Spotify.
***
Subscribe to or follow the show for free wherever you listen to podcasts.
To leave the show a review:
On Spotify. Open the Spotify app (iOS or Android), find the show and tap to rate five-stars. (Details here)On Apple. Open your Apple Podcasts app, find the show and tap to rate five-stars. (Details here)On Podchaser. Open the Podchaser website, find the show and tap to rate five-stars. (Details here)
Music Credit:
Once Upon a Time by Alex-Productions | https://onsound.eu/ | Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
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By Poems for the Speed of Life
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Whether this is your first time listening to this show, or your 100th time, allow me to take this opportunity to remind you that all my introductions here, every episode of this podcast, my thoughts are only one perspective.
The thing about poetry—and from doing this podcast I’ve started to think about poetry not as a piece of writing on a page or screen, but as a transcendent moment of being, a fleeting glimpse of the oneness of the universe, an experience of divine wisdom, whatever divinity might mean, and that the great poem, or great song, or great work of art, is nothing more than an attempt to capture that experience—so the thing about poetry is that speaks to all of us in different ways.
You know that feeling when you look upon a portrait hanging in a gallery, and the eyes follow you round. As if the artwork is seeking you, or seeing you. That’s how I feel about poems too. All this to say that whatever I might say about these poems, in every episode, is just one very incomplete perspective, and that if this poem, or any poem here, speaks to you in a different way or shows you a different direction, please allow yourself to follow it, even if it disregards completely anything I might say here.
Why I chose My Mother’s Body by Marie Howe.
I read another poem by Marie Howe back in Episode 77. That was What The Living Do, and some of the things I felt there—things that relate to this passing miracle of being alive—I felt here too. In both poems there is a close relative who is no longer here, and the poems jump backwards and forwards in a sort of fabric of life. Where being itself, and all our memories, hopes, dreams, regrets, fears, are all interwoven. Where there is, almost, no past or future, just a single and strange neverending present.
The way time works in My Mother’s Body is mesmerising. We are with Marie Howe in the womb, we are with her after her mother’s death. In nine sentences we experience two lives, a mother and a daughter.
You can read the poem here
***
For a detailed outline of the mission and purpose behind this podcast, please check out Episode 100, "Why Poems for the Speed of Life?", in your podcast player or click here to listen on Spotify.
***
Subscribe to or follow the show for free wherever you listen to podcasts.
To leave the show a review:
On Spotify. Open the Spotify app (iOS or Android), find the show and tap to rate five-stars. (Details here)On Apple. Open your Apple Podcasts app, find the show and tap to rate five-stars. (Details here)On Podchaser. Open the Podchaser website, find the show and tap to rate five-stars. (Details here)
Music Credit:
Once Upon a Time by Alex-Productions | https://onsound.eu/ | Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com