Alice Notley vividly reconstructs the mysteries, longings, and emotions of her past in this brilliant new collection of poems that charts her growth from young girl to young woman to accomplished artist. In this volume, memories of her childhood in the California desert spring to life through evocative renderings of the American landscape, circa 1950. Likewise, her coming of age as a poet in the turbulent sixties is evoked through the era's angry, creative energy. As she looks backward with the perspective that time and age allows, Notley ably captures the immediacy of youth's passion while offering her own dry-eyed interpretations of the events of a life lived close to the bone. Like the colorful collages she assembles from paper and other found materials, Notley erects structures of image and feeling to house the memories that swirl around her in the present.In their feverish, intelligent renderings of moments both precise and ephemeral, Notley's poems manage to mirror and transcend the times they evoke. Her profound tributes to the stages of her life and to the identities she has assumed-child, youth, lover, poet, wife, mother, friend, and widow—are remarkable for their insight and wisdom, and for the courage of their unblinking gaze.

mysteries of small housesWould Want to Be In My WildlifeHouse of SelfI'm Just Rigid EnoughKiss of FireOne of the Longest TimesThe Future May Contain Me MoreSynchronous ChronologyThe Obnoxious TruthRequiem for the First Half of SplitExperience1965Prophet's JobAs Good as Anything"Go In and Out the Window"April Not an Inventory but a Blizzard1970Choosing Styles-1972Not ChildA Baby Is Born Out of a White Owl's Forehead-1972They Cut Out Her Eye and So She Dosen't Know If It's RealDiversey StreetI Must Have Called and So He ComesColors-1973Waveland (Back in Chicago)Collage"Bring Me a Pea Jacket and Sandwiches"The Howling Saint T-ShirtPlace Myself in New York (Need One More There)The Trouble with You GirlsSelf ' 78 Speak1979 A DreamThe Year of the Premonitory Dream That Ted and Steve Left MeHematite Heirloom Lives On (Maybe December 1980)C. '81Gladly Though I Lost It and Knew I WouldHow We Spent the Last Year of His LifeThe Common Ground Ask Anyone You KnowPoint of FidelityI-Towards a DefinitionII-The Person That You Were Will Be ReplacedFlowersA Metaphysics of EmotionBecoming EgyptianMid-80'sYou Can Give It AwayBut In This World Together and Not Passing AwayThe New York HumanI Am a Hardened HeartThe Brain Is a Toy but Loyalty's MetaphysicalSept 17 / Aug 29, '88OwlsVertical AxisThe TyrantAlette101If I Didn't Shiver I Wouldn't Be ColdIn Needless and to Poet What Are Real Things1992New Dreams47th BirthdayBobby (First Visit Back to the States)In the Basement of Claypool's Department StoreGoing Back MorningsPlace BlancheMore Below a Dream OfRemember What I Came Here to Do to This World Very Little ActuallyOfficeMysteries of Small HousesLady Poverty