Disobedience

This is the book that really threw me into Notley's poetry. I could not put it down and had to read everything by her after this. It was tricky to get into at first, but once you allow yourself to wade into this world it's hard to put it down. The book length poem is filled with recurring images, fictional characters, aspects of the self, and motifs that all create a collage. The overall effect engages you with its witticisms, lyricalism and coded language that you want to uncover like a detective gathering clues. I loved reading this with "Mysteries of Small Houses" and "Descent of Allette", because they are all experimenting with the poet's role in the world and with poetry's historical use to explore self.

There's a future in this poetry, a future for poetry, if the new poets will read it, speak it, and try to understand it. The Descent of Alette equally marvelous.