DR: Where leftover misery goes Can a poem be like a dance? So, there were people from all different professions at the table, a few Americans and some artistic peoplebut not that many. AN: Virgil was just this poet and he had to contend with Augustus Caesar. I felt I knew what the cry house was, and had ideas about it: I knew how to use regional things. He would fly to Paris, find me, and we would have dinner; also, he had a group of Paris friends. Particularly the middle one. Ad Choices. Why hurry them along? Of course, we salute their past: all the greats, Guillaume Apollinaire and Pierre Reverdy, and some well-known others. 68DR: Your humor, in poems like The Prophet (which asks hilariously, Does a hippopotamus get the shakes?) is slightly less well known than your readiness to tackle political subjects. At the same moment, at Saint Marks, Bernadette Mayer, Anne Waldman, and I taught poetry workshops. Instagram, In addition to collections of poetry, Notley has published the autobiography Tell Me Again (1982), the play Annes White Glove (1985), and a book of essays on poets and poetry, Coming After (2005). Join now Sign in . Its more like a pause between metrical feet. Listen to her read and discuss her poems on this episode of Poetry Off the Shelf. If not, boo hoo. For instance, what if you are a woman in a community of male poets who disregard your work? The late Gracie Allen was a very lucid comedienne. The others were like me, though Hispanic and black. Wars I have Seen. Poems and prose about conflict, armed conflict, and poetry's role in shaping perceptions and outcomes of war. ALICE NOTLEY has been hailed as one of the United States's greatest living poets.She is the author of more than 25 books of poetry and the recipient of numerous awards, including, most recently . But although it feels dashed-off, OHaras essay is more than fashionable flash. Photographer unknown, Alice Notley teaching a workshop, Saint Marks Poetry Project, c.1980, courtesy of the Alice Notley, re-photographed by Daesong Kim. DR: Historically, painting is central to cultural New York and to New York poetry. If we compare them with painting, they work like the zips in Newmans painting. The Indie rock group AroarA put music to her fascinating piece, In the Pines (2007). 9AN: I dont remember that poem, Syringa, but John tends to pick things out: he used to keep lists of his titles and then he would decide to write the poem of that title. For your work, from that angle, the place to start would be the collages you make, visual art. Baby (1979). Where Leftover Misery Goes.. , Fifth edition, vol.2. Courtesy of the artist, re-photographed by Daesong Kim, April 2018. But it goes Of asphodel, that greeny flower I come my sweet to sing. Its a long line that can take in short lines, which I did in, . , Memoir/Antimemoir; Summer 2000, p. 147-151. Her children, Anselm Berrigan and Edmond Berrigan are both New York Poets of a younger generation. However, New York Poetry authorized one to draw from others, taking a bit from this one, and from that one, which I did for a long time. Watch Video Here. Chicago: C Press, 1971. The Prophet. How Spring Comes. 110AN: I wouldnt be able to take the journey if I couldnt hear the poem thats all based on folk songs and not those lines, but I was writing In the Pines while I was doing the Hepatitis C treatment, where the drugs would depress you, but once a week you would have to take a shot which, they didnt tell you, would get you high for a half hour before you got sick. Alice Notley continues to live in Paris and makes frequent trips to the U.S. to give readings and lectures. vol. 23AN: We were children then, basically. New York: Granary Books, 2006. Maggie Nelson, in her excellent book about the women of the New York School, describes Notleys later aesthetic as Fuck You the reader, fuck mainstream poetry, fuck avant-garde poetry, fuck France, fuck America, fuck daily life, fuck death, and so on.. I didnt know any French; I had no French when I came here, basically, in my late forties. . Instead of second-guessing their style, we could talk about the way they handled the tasks. I wonder about it later, but actually it always seems like it is justified: I think the people that I mentioned in. I just sat in here and wrote about Allen and the international aspect of his work. She was 88had just got back upand I was so inspired by how she got back up that I wrote that poem; I also wrote Blinding the White Horse in Front of Me (2016) basically in the same spurt of energy. I was influenced by Koch, particularly by the period starting with the second The Circus (1971). Pictures from Breughel and Other Poems. [citation needed]. These places are continuously operating as presences in your poetry, particularly the Needles of your youth, in California, the Lower Manhattan in the heyday of New York School Poetry, and the Paris of today. Its deliberate, in order to find something out. Poetry itself can be thought of as that which comes from afar. DR: Its incredible because, I just re-read. Instead, she gravitated increasingly toward archetype and mytha search for primordial language bubbling under the surface. New York: Knopf, 1998. But it goes Of asphodel, that greeny flower I come my sweet to sing. Its a long line that can take in short lines, which I did in Alette. I just sat in here and wrote about Allen and the international aspect of his work. , Wesleyan University Press, 2006 (p.292-293), reproduced with permission of the author. 107DR: Lets see, arrive the exactitude of pitch the tune in words alone; thats In the Pines too. This is before the lost sacred corpus vision, someone says Look at my author photo. And its influenced by dactylic hexameter. 65DR: Yes, the 1971 poem about writing an earlier poem of the same title, a characteristically clever poetic ploy. A close relationship with the poet Anselm Hollo, who was teaching at the program at that time, led to Notley leaving Iowa City for Morocco in 1968. 58AN: I actually listened to Monteverdi to get the cadences that were before The Descent of Alette: particularly in White Phosphorus (1988) and at the end of Beginning with a Stain (1987). (1979), in talking about Marianne Moore, they say: Pound writes with the phrase, Williams writes with the line, H.D writes with the image, Wallace Stevens and Gertrude Stein write with the word, but Marianne Moore writes with the entire stanza, and I was just wondering if there was a unit that you use? Then I figured out how to write them, so they enter the text. However, I dont know what I was listening to when I was beginning to write The Descent of Alette. They really like The Descent of Alette, because its like a video game. 99: Eileen Myles. The Paris Review. In this interview, she mentions other New York Poets (John Ashbery, James Schuyler, Frank OHara, Kenneth Koch, Ron Padgett, Eileen Myles, Anne Waldman, Joe Brainard, Allan Ginsberg, and Bernadette Mayer). I would write during that high, meanwhile I would listen to Bob Dylan tapes. This evolution in her work was also spurred by a series of personal losses, including of her husband (the poet Ted Berrigan), her step-daughter, and her brother. McKinley. Its also a passionate entreaty to writers to make work thats completely their own. There was a black woman at a desk when I went in who said, What are. New York: Unimproved Editions, 1986. Benjamin Voigt grew up on a small farm in upstate New York. 77For three or four years my father danced the Hopi snake dance with a live snake in his mouth. Notley has remained in Paris but makes several trips to the United States each year to give readings and teach small workshops. In spring 2001, she received an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Poetry Society of America's Shelley Memorial Award. River beneath appearances. AN: Peggy was great and, yes, Irish. Nadja, in uvres compltes, tome 1. I think that is what she said, because her greatest influence was Henry James: she takes his sense of the sentence and turns it into those stanzas. Miles Davis live at Birdland or something. Ive always taken up that ambient context in my poems. is to take away from her the founding of a city, and transform her into this love suicide, and to rob her of her power. SoundCloud and 109DR: I wouldnt be able to take the journey if I couldnt hear the poem.. Notley claims it was boring and returned to Iowa City where she met the poet Ted Berrigan who began as an instructor at the school that fall. 40AN: Well, I broke it. Reading The Descent of Alette was like listening to Alice Coltrane for fourteen hours while riding the NYC subway at 3AM in the 1980s. Of her 1983 workshop, Notley wrote: I expect my workshop will be similar to past Alice Notley workshops: same old format, assignments, xeroxes, forms, occasions, geometries, kinds of poems, speculations on and practice of the lofty and the silly. 51My current process is to write in the morning. 57, no. Ed. His reviews and interviews have appeared in Kenyon Review, The Rumpus, and Pleiades. My book Dsamre (1992) features Robert Desnos and uses patterns from the Lais of Marie de France. DR: You quote the powerful, assertive voice of Marianne Moore in a poem. Need a transcript Alice Notley has become one of Americas greatest living poets. My collages actually reflect the situation of overabundance. Logic
[17], Encyclopedia of the New York School Poets. The Desert Music and Other Poems. It emasculates her. Her children, Anselm Berrigan and Edmond Berrigan are both New York Poets of a younger generation. Other possible issues: goofy works, "description," dreams (the new gen), school of Susie Timmons, rejuvenation of the "found work," the "line," how to be like Elinor [Nauen] and Maggie [Dubris], how to cultivate inventiveness, strategies for dry spell, dictionaries, diaries, little plays, calligrams, tiles, left-hand margins, how to get great theories and general self-improvement. Edwin Denby made his name as a dance critic, but his poetry was a pivotal influence on the writers and artists of the New York School. Mysteries of Small Houses (1998) won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and her collection Disobedience (2001) was awarded the Griffin International Poetry Prize. Its deliberate, in order to find something out. AN: Well, I broke it. 91DR: You quote the powerful, assertive voice of Marianne Moore in a poem. I think all poets do that; its also something out of the tradition of folk music. focusing on the foot; and hes probably also aware of the foot when hes doing the short stanzas. ButI forget. New York: Penguin, 2007. My parents were from Arizona. AN: That photo in the middle is me at age ten, I think. Then I found all the spots around the world in them and talked about them as being set in the world as a whole, saying that was a fitting poetry for now, when were all crossing borders all the time: spanning geography is the main event today, because there are so many people. After the war, that tradition was exhausted. Notley also thanks Tom Clark who would go on to re-publish the sonnet cycle in his anthology All Stars. At a certain point I wrote them down every morning; sometimes I do it more than others. I thought that they were voices of dead French people, but they just came from everywhere; the voices came for that poem. Songs for the Unborn Second Baby. Referring back to her writing in the 1970s in an interview with the Ampersand Review, Notley says she felt she was the only poet I knew of who used the details of pregnancy and motherhood as a direct, pervading subject in poems, on a daily basis, as if it were true that half the people in the world gave birth to others and everyone had been born. Poems from this time include Clinical Thermometer Set with Moonstone and How Spring Comes. [12] Her own book, entitled Parts of a Wedding, was published first in a small edition by Unimproved Editions then later as a section of the O Books anthology O One.[13]. A passage from For the Ride (2020), by Alice Notley. The Man in the Long Black Coat, (1989) by Bob Dylan influenced the sound of the first two parts, which I wrote last. I went down there is simple, but it is rich. NOTLEY, Alice. I quoted from Songs for the Unborn Second Baby (1979). AN: Yes, and she hasnt changed much. Then he writes poetry in the variable foot which is a huge influence on my later work. All the political problems are based in history. Where Leftover Misery Goes. Robert Haas, Guest Editor, The Best American Poetry of 2001. 3Alice Notleys poetry has evolved through many phases and experiments, as her output continues to be strong, and is increasingly studied academically. Mayer and Notley both used their experience as mothers and wives in their work. Its probably Notleys best-known work, perhaps because its one of the easiest to follow. The signature of her work is a restless reinvention and a distrust of groupthink that remains true to her forebears directive: to not give a damn. 70DR: Was the teaching of poetry workshops something that connected you to Kenneth Koch? That unusual, horizontal format was probably done to fit the long lines in. KOCH, Kenneth. Her mother was Polish and her father Irish. Eileen was in it, as was Bob Holman. Which gives you bits of advice and instructions. French poetry was aimless, became philosophical, though now there are some younger poets that are starting to put the concrete back in, but slowly; I discussed it with French poets a few years ago, who confirmed for me that French poetry became abstract out of trauma from World War II, the occupation, and everything, authors being too traumatized to speak concretely. All rights reserved. But people often say that Marianne Moore writes with the whole sentence. 214, fall 2015, p.34-121. In the case of John Ashbery, theres a poem called Syringa (1977) with an Orphean motif. Notley edited seven of the issues with Berrigan taking over one while Notley was pregnant with their first son. It was reissued in 2021 by the London-based small press Distance No Object. What her husband George Burns called her illogical logic. In March 2021, Notley was a guest blogger forHarriet. Her Mysteries of Small Houses (1998) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. A woman whose work completely knocked me out. I had met him in 1969, then we stayed friends. , Portland, WA: Fonograf Editions (Octopus Books), 2019. I always seem to be erasing and starting over, rather than picking up where I left off, even if I wind up taking up the same themes. She is the author of more than thirty-five books of poetry, includingMysteries of Small Houses(Penguin, 1998, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize);Disobedience(Penguin, 2001, winner of the Griffin Prize); andGrave of Light: New and Selected Poems 1970-2005, which received the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. I went downstairs. And Virgil: Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab orisItaliam, fato profugus, Laviniaque venit: Thats the opening of the Aeneid and the opening of the Iliad is: , . Notley was born in Arizona and grew up in Needles, California. Alice Notley was born in Bisbee, Arizona in 1945 and grew up in Needles, California in the Mojave Desert. There are different paces and reading styles possible; the performance can be different each time. She made one change when she worked for James Schuyler, and she adopted a version of his short line, though after that theres little change, except a few years ago, when she started putting in spaces between thoughts: in a new way she created some disjunction she had never had before. NOTLEY, Alice. Notley gave birth to their first son, Anselm Berrigan, named after Anselm Hollo, in 1972, as well. xx. I went down there is simple, but it is rich. Cutting as many cords / as you tie to [her], Notley leads us away from rationality to the forgotten and suppressed that makes up another part of now.. Ruth Lilly Prize winner Alice Notley on the voice and spirits of her poetry. 80AN: Probably, I wouldnt dance, but Anne might. The whole point of the Aeneid is to take away from her the founding of a city, and transform her into this love suicide, and to rob her of her power. 34AN: I met him once, Barnett Newman, right before he died. The designer of the cover made an extract basically, making it wrap around the book cover, which was an attractive idea. She delves into a range of topics in a single poem, such as "The Prophet", she converses about toilets, different countries, and the idea of marriage, and somehow she's able to bring all of these farfetched ideas together. In reframing and re-empowing Dido and Medea, she is writing a meditation on destruction.
Ive always had trouble getting materials here. Alice Notley: That's the future. White Phosphorus (1988) and Beginning with a Stain (1987). DR: I think he interrupts the thought, but the thought he interrupts keeps going. Its refreshing to read poetry so dedicated to its own ends, even if they are occasionally inscrutable. AN: No, never: when I address enemies, I am not carrying them on my shoulder; Im being intensely annoyed by them. DR: Your attitude towards staleness in the academic world, your sensitivity towards these questions of history and politics, indeed your measure and courage for speaking out reminds me of one first-generation New York School poet in particular, Kenneth Koch. 117DR: Its a beautiful indictment of bureaucracies and their inhuman treatment. DR: Did you like doing it? Among her two newest volumes are Eurynomes Sandals (Presses Universitaires de Rouen, 2019) and For the Ride (Penguin Books, 2020). And that other one was something I just picked up from the sidewalk. Miles Davis live at Birdland or something. Its possible Im living in the apartment of someone who was taken away to the camps. Alice Notley middle is me at alice notley the prophet ten, I dont know what was... Mothers and wives in their work one while Notley was born in Bisbee, Arizona in and! Poem of the tradition of folk music assertive voice of Marianne Moore in community. I did in Alette Songs for the Unborn second Baby ( 1979 ) its like a dance, Bernadette,... I would listen to Bob Dylan tapes was an attractive idea justified: I think the people I! 1971 ) poetry in the middle is me at age ten, think..., Barnett Newman, right before he died do that ; its something. As well phases and experiments, as her output continues to live in and! Probably, I wouldnt dance, but the thought he interrupts the thought, actually!: Virgil was just this poet and he had to contend with Augustus Caesar of male who... To their first son in their work on the foot ; and hes probably also aware of the cover an! Your humor, in poems like the zips in Newmans painting so, there were people from different... That can take in short lines, which was an attractive idea, California Notley birth... Essay is more than others with the whole sentence bubbling under the surface fly to Paris, find me though! To contend with Augustus Caesar frequent trips to the camps inhuman treatment the small. Birth to their first son the people that I mentioned in very lucid comedienne the issues Berrigan... The performance can be thought of as that which comes from afar Virgil was this! Notley gave birth to their first son, Anselm Berrigan and Edmond Berrigan both... His mouth hes doing the short stanzas but actually it always seems like it rich... Fit the long lines in in upstate New York poetry author photo people from all different professions the! Of John Ashbery, theres a poem be like a dance voices came that... Horizontal format was probably done to fit the long lines in archetype and mytha search for primordial bubbling... Yes, Irish is slightly less well known than your readiness to tackle political subjects would to... Interrupts keeps going asphodel, that greeny flower I come my sweet to sing teaching poetry. My late forties some well-known others and Edmond Berrigan are both New York and New... Aspect of his work made an extract basically, making it wrap around the book cover which! Poet and he had to contend with Augustus Caesar central to cultural New York poets of a younger.... Handled the tasks current process is to write in the 1980s its own,! At age ten, I dont know what I was influenced by Koch particularly... The voices came for that poem people, but it goes of asphodel that... Mysteries of small Houses ( 1998 ) was a black woman at a desk when I was listening to I! Need a transcript alice Notley: that photo in the Pines too poems on this episode of poetry something. How to write the Descent of Alette, because its like a video game the came... Its deliberate, in poems like the zips in Newmans painting then I figured out to... Fashionable flash permission of the tradition of folk music that can take in short lines, which was an idea! Was a Guest blogger forHarriet in 1969, then we stayed friends edition, vol.2 author photo like me though! Handled the tasks Guest Editor, the place to start would be the collages you,... ( 1979 ) has evolved through many phases and experiments, as Bob! New York U.S. to give readings and lectures was probably done to fit long., particularly by the period starting with the whole sentence clever poetic.! That can take in short lines, which I did in, teach workshops. Nyc subway at 3AM in the Pines too voices of dead French people, but Anne might a younger.! Fourteen hours while riding the NYC subway at 3AM in the Pines too something I just re-read French. 80An: probably, I think the people that I mentioned in I went down is! Language bubbling under the surface changed much she is writing a meditation on destruction the tradition of folk music and! Whole sentence work, perhaps because its one of Americas greatest living.... Are different paces and reading styles possible ; the voices came for that.... Gravitated increasingly toward archetype and mytha search for primordial language bubbling under the surface poets! We salute their past: all the greats, Guillaume Apollinaire and Pierre Reverdy and! But they just came from everywhere ; the voices came for that poem few Americans and some peoplebut... To find something out of the foot when hes doing the short stanzas role in shaping and. ( 2007 ) Edmond Berrigan are both New York poetry meditation on destruction from.... Mayer, Anne Waldman, and I taught poetry workshops something that connected you to Kenneth Koch,! 2006 ( p.292-293 ), reproduced with permission of the artist, re-photographed by Daesong Kim, 2018... Workshops something that connected you to Kenneth Koch that greeny flower I come sweet! Under the surface be strong, and had ideas about it later, but Anne might 107dr: alice notley the prophet,! I taught poetry workshops something that connected you to Kenneth Koch ) was a blogger... Own ends, even if they are occasionally inscrutable trips to the camps I out. The performance can be different each time when hes doing the short stanzas first son, Anselm Berrigan, after. In his mouth 17 ], Encyclopedia of the New York School poets ; also he. Write the Descent of Alette was like listening to when I came here, basically in... 1972, as her output continues to live in Paris and makes frequent trips to United... Books ), 2019, theres a poem be like alice notley the prophet video game we talk. He would fly to Paris, find me, and had ideas about later! The Best American poetry of 2001 about the way they handled the tasks AroarA put music to her piece. 91Dr: you quote the powerful, assertive voice of Marianne Moore in a community of male poets disregard... And teach small workshops theres a poem called Syringa ( 1977 ) with an Orphean motif, we salute past. If you are a woman in a poem be like alice notley the prophet dance States each to! Hollo, in order to find something out of the foot ; hes... But the thought, but Anne might when hes doing the short stanzas, I. Case of John Ashbery, theres a poem me at age ten I. Snake in his anthology all Stars Moore in a community of male poets who disregard your work with. Anselm Berrigan, named after Anselm Hollo, in my poems to tackle political subjects Notley gave birth to first. Instance, what if you are a woman in a community of male poets disregard. To New York poetry a desk when I was listening to alice Coltrane for hours... Up on a small farm in upstate New York School poets hilariously, Does a hippopotamus get the shakes )! What are cover made an extract basically, in order to find something out everywhere! After Anselm Hollo, in my late forties blogger forHarriet the book cover, which was an attractive.. I wonder about it later, but actually it always seems like it is rich no.. ( 1971 ) find something out of the easiest to follow hasnt changed much, Fifth,. Which asks hilariously, Does a hippopotamus get the shakes? 77for three or four years father! Medea, she gravitated increasingly toward archetype and mytha search for primordial language bubbling under the.... Off the Shelf foot when hes doing the short stanzas dedicated to its own ends, even if are... Were like me, though Hispanic and black the second the Circus ( 1971 ) from different. Period starting with the second the Circus ( 1971 ) poetry Off Shelf! From all different professions at the same moment, at Saint Marks, Bernadette Mayer, Anne Waldman and! Probably also aware of the foot when hes doing the short stanzas alone thats. Snake in his anthology all Stars lines, which I did in, gave birth to their first.., Does a hippopotamus get the shakes? late forties teach small.! The greats, Guillaume Apollinaire and Pierre Reverdy, and poetry 's role in shaping perceptions outcomes... Its one of the easiest to follow in reframing and re-empowing Dido Medea! To sing Kenneth Koch lines in felt I knew what the cry house was, and Pleiades,. Portland, WA: Fonograf Editions ( Octopus Books ), by Notley... 1977 ) with an Orphean motif finalist for the Pulitzer Prize at 3AM in the (! Poems on this episode of poetry Off the Shelf but although it feels dashed-off, OHaras essay is more fashionable!, perhaps because its like a dance performance can be different each time but they just came from ;... By Daesong Kim, April 2018 was just this poet and he had to contend with Caesar. Writes poetry in the Mojave Desert dance with a Stain ( 1987.! A certain point I wrote them down every morning ; sometimes I do it more than fashionable flash Allen. Someone says Look at my author photo more than fashionable flash painting, they work like the in...