Poetry Unbound Poetry Unbound in Conversation — Marie Howe
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Dec 19, 2025 Marie Howe, the former Poet Laureate of New York and a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, shares her insights on the intimate connection between language and the body. She explores Mary Magdalene's complex role as a symbol of feminine strength and reflects on the wisdom of deceased friends in her life. The conversation spans eco-poetry, the profound effects of grief, and the deep listening required to engage with the world around us. Marie's vibrant readings showcase her unique ability to weave personal experience with universal themes.
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Letters As Embodied Presence
- Marie Howe recalls letters from lovers as physical, embodied objects that carried presence across distance and time.
- She contrasts that tactile waiting with today's disembodied, machine-mediated communication and longs for palpable space between people.
Perception Shapes Local Reality
- Marie Howe treats surface observation as a way to make deeper meaning, suggesting perception creates local reality.
- She links poetic attention to the idea that our perceiving makes reality and questions what lies 'beneath' the surface.
Nuns As Models Of Intellectual Life
- Marie Howe remembers nuns who were educated, independent thinkers and models of lives not defined by marriage.
- Their example presented a radical vision of women with intellectual vocation and subjectivity for her growing up Catholic.