Alice Notley
Alice Notley was one of America’s greatest poets. She wrote across narrative and epic and genre-bending modes to discover new ways to explore the nature of the self and the social and cultural importance of disobedience. The artist Rudy Burckhardt once wrote that Notley was “our present-day Homer.”
CPC Readings
Friday, April 18, 1975
with Ted Berrigan, Peter Kostakis, and Paul Carroll
Museum of Contemporary Art
Friday, November 30, 1984
with Paul Carroll
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Poetry by Alice Notley
My Sea Continue reading
What I lose you let me, accusation
always gets one in. But I want to talk like the dead
remember that town where we went or
how do I know when I’m just a soul — not
when I’m leading?
A soul can lead, fight and kill; in the sketchy rain
there, but you can’t kill where we’re dead. That’s
the best thing — no one has any power.
How can I lead you without power? We want to find
out … Drop everything? — there’s no gravity.
Are you grave? There’s no bravery.
The Anthology Continue reading
No tone of voice being sufficient to the occasion
Flash that’s all, that we’re here. Are you ever
sarcastic and unlikeable Mentally we are the
cast of one epic thought: You. How many
of you sweep through me, as I ride the métro
leading you, because I have to and not be poignant
oh who’s written anything poignant since …