Selected poems from a visionary feminist poet.

"Over the last quarter-century, Notley has crafted an increasingly important body of work that mixes unabashed lyric beauty with jerky snippets from a capacious mind. Her books, however, have been haphazardly and often obscurely published by both small and major house; this collection brings together, for the first time, poems from all points in Notley's career, making available many pieces that have long been impossible to find. Beginning as a poet of the second generation of the New York School, Notley (who was married to the late Ted Berrigan, and, with their two sons, recently edited his Collected Poems) developed a mostly autobiographical, stream-of-consciousness style. Her meditations and sequences take an array of forms and modes, including collages of her children's voices ('These are my silver mittens Mommy'), short lyrics recalling famous figures ('The late Gracie Allen was a very lucid comedienne'), as well as absurdist poetic diaries and letters ('P.S. My own temperature is a perpetual 101 degrees'). More recent poems that come to terms with her marriage to Berrigan are among her best: ' 'You haven't wanted to talk to me since I died,' he says.' While somewhat idiosyncratically organized, this is an essential book. (Sept.)" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Considered by many to be among the most outstanding of living American poets, Alice Notley has amassed a body of work that includes intimate lyrics, experimental diaries, traditional genres, the postmodern series, the newly invented epic, political observation and invective, and the poem as novel. This chronological selection of her most notable work offers a delineation of her life and creative development. Formerly associated with the second generation of the New York School, Notley has become a poet with a completely distinctive voice. Grave of Light is a progression of changing forms and styles--an extensive panorama held together explicitly by the shape of the poet's times. Notley's poems challenge their subjects head-on, suffusing language with radiant truth.