Grave of Light: New and Selected Poems, 1970–2005 (Wesleyan Poetry Series)

ON FIRST LOOKING INTO NOTLEY'S GRAVE OF LIGHThttps://smile.amazon.com/Grave-Light-Selected-1970-2005-Wesleyan/dp/0819567736/ref=sr_1_1?crid=IB2RSJAZJHZT&keywords=grave+of+light+by+alice+notley&qid=1558868930&s=gateway&sprefix=grave+of+light+%2Caps%2C157&sr=8-1 - 5/? /2019The first line of the first poem 2/? Saturdayis funnyand sadValentine's Dayquestion markWhat yearI met Ted a couple timesNot met met but metAlice was married to Tedat that timeI use first names to mimicold New York School poetryI "met" Tedplaying pool in UptownI saw it was TedPut my quarters on the railOf the pool tableTo reserve a gameWhen my turn cameI said, "Maybe Alice wants to playAnd Ted said"Nobody plays with my wife except mewith that big shit-eating grinthat meant he was ready to goPlay the DozensI was not one at that time. or now, to match witswith Ted Berriganso I looked at Alicehoping she would say somethingwitty, I'm surebut she didn'tValentine's Day, sorrowthe mind fliesHer early poemswere love poemsThat poem was 1970She met Tedin 1969? "Who Do You Love" The DoorsI saw her once at the Art Institutea supplicantasking, "Show us the wayHelen FrankenthalerElaine deyou can seebut a Post-Modern savorI never spoke to hernot just because of Tedlike Emmylou Harrisand GramHis deathHer great songs"Sweetheart of the Rodeo"Boulder to BirminghamNothing specific

I’m enjoying how this volume is structured. Notley mentions that she’s followed the example of Frank O’Hara’s Collected Poems and that’s accurate. Given how many books and chapbooks she’s published, this was a wise choice. Arranging the collection based on the years in which poems were written helped me witness the author’s development, which tendencies she moved toward and away from, which interests seemed to pick up or fall into the background.Now I have a much better idea of where I’ll want to dig in further. What a great guide!

Great collection of poems by Alice Notley!

Thank you

Stunning engaging poetry, I love her. Please read.

One of our finest poets. Nothing or needs to be said. Read her.

This is my first time reading this poet. I bought this collection after reading some rave reviews when I was on the hunt for some new poets to try. I found this to be quite a mixed bag of poems. A lot of the poems worked and were enjoyable but almost as much didn’t work for me. Notley is a diverse, talented poet but I expected to enjoy this a lot more. Some poems, especially in the last hundred or so pages were quite a slog to get through. The poems are ordered chronologically and I enjoyed the older poems at the start of the collection a lot more. The poems in the first half are very vivid and full of rich detail. I enjoyed these immensely. After the halfway mark the structure and layout of the poems become quite experimental with one word lines and weird alignment and this really put me off. There are also a bunch of poems in the second half of the collection that consist mainly of random sentences in quotation marks that I really didn’t enjoy. I didn’t get on very well with this collection and really struggled to read the land hundred or so pages. Maybe this is because I don’t like reading 364 page poem collections. Grave of Light started off well but this wasn’t carried all the way through.