Hurry by Marie Howe
Hurry
Marie HoweWe 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.Where do I want her to hurry to? To her grave?
To mine? Where one day she might stand all grown?
Today, when all the errands are finally done, I say to her,
Honey I’m sorry I keep saying Hurry—
you walk ahead of me. You be the mother.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.
MARGINALIA
1.
These days I am learning how to love myself again. Some days I forget how. And it’s fine mostly, because what do I do with it really. That sounds so terrible when I say it like that, but when you’ve been where I’ve been, in the deep pit with your mouth full of dirt, swimming in despair, you’ll understand that love sometimes can almost be an afterthought. After the fact. After the fracture.
2.
Feel like I’m hurrying towards something I dread and I can’t help but rush towards it, as if pulled by an unknown force. I don’t even try to fight back. Hurry, a voice inside me says, almost sings it even, hurry hurry hurry. And then I remember: I have to love myself again. So I suppose I drag my feet a little bit. Suppose I try to wait.
3.
Someone once told me: loving is staying. Staying is a form of loving. Some days I forget how to love. And then I remember.
KEEP READING
SHARED WITH GRATITUDE
This poem appeared in The Kingdom of Ordinary Time by Marie Howe, published by W. W. Norton & Company, 2009. (Available on: Amazon • Bookshop)
DESCRIPTION
“Hurrying through errands, attending a dying mother, helping her own child down the playground slide, the speaker in these poems wonders: what is the difference between the self and the soul? The secular and the sacred? Where is the kingdom of heaven? And how does one live in Ordinary Time―during those apparently unmiraculous periods of everyday trouble and joy?” (Source)
ABOUT MARIE HOWE
Marie Howe was born in 1950 in Rochester, New York. She worked as a newspaper reporter and teacher before receiving her MFA from Columbia University in 1983. Howe is the author of New and Selected Poems (W. W. Norton, 2024), winner of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; Magdalene (W. W. Norton, 2017), which was long-listed for the National Book Award; The Kingdom of Ordinary Time (W. W. Norton, 2009), which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; What the Living Do (W. W.… (more)
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ENDNOTES
- Explore other works in pursuit of: reversal • motherhood • time • Or browse the index
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Vatsala
Oh. Oh how incredibly beautiful. The poem as well as your words. Thank you for sharing, truly. I can’t stop reading and re-reading. Sending love and a big hug. ❤
T.
Thank you. I’m in a rough place so your words are a balm.
T.
Ellen Sullivsn
Thank you a beautiful poem I feel I am always hurting so it fits me .