At Night the States

by Alice Notley

Cover design and drawings by George Schneeman.

Genres: Poetry

Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Alice Notley was an American poet. Notley came to prominence as a member of the second generation of the New York School of poetry—although she always denied being involved with the New York School or any specific movement in general. Notley's early work laid both formal and theoretical groundwork for several generations of poets; she was considered a pioneering voice on topics like motherhood and domestic life.
Notley's experimentation with poetic form, seen in her books 165 Meeting House Lane, When I Was Alive, The Descent of Alette, and Culture of One, ranges from a blurred line between genres, to a quotation-mark-driven interpretation of the variable foot, to a full reinvention of the purpose and potential of strict rhythm and meter. She also experimented with channeling spirits of deceased loved ones, primarily men gone from her life like her father and her husband, poet Ted Berrigan, and used these conversations as topics and form in her poetry. Her poems have also been compared to those of Gertrude Stein as well as her contemporary Bernadette Mayer. Mayer and Notley both used their experience as mothers and wives in their work.
In addition to poetry, Notley wrote a book of criticism (Coming After, University of Michigan, 2005), a play ("Anne's White Glove"—performed at the Eye & Ear Theater in 1985), a biography (Tell Me Again, Am Here, 1982), and she edited three publications, Chicago, Scarlet, and Gare du Nord, the latter two co-edited with Douglas Oliver. Notley's collage art appeared in Rudy Burckhardt's film "Wayward Glimpses" and her illustrations have appeared on the cover of numerous books, including a few of her own. As is often written in her biographical notes, "She has never tried to be anything other than a poet," and with over forty books and chapbooks and several major awards, she was one of the most prolific and lauded American poets. She was a recipient of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Update 2025: Alice Notley died (may she rest in peace and power), so I wanted to re-read some of her work and this was handy. I re-read it and loved it. I'm guessing many people became aware of her because of The Descent of Alette, as I did, so I'll probably be reading that again soon. But this book was handy so I re-read it first. I'm glad Alice Notley lived and wrote poetry and that I learned of her work and read some. (Not sure why this only got 3 stars from me, I'm upping it to 4 now.)

Original review:
I got this book as a thank-you gift for donating to the fund to bring the author to Oakland for a symposium on her work (Alette in Oakland), which for some reason I ended up not attending myself. Anyway, I wish you could see the cover of this book, it is the blue of the Morton Salt package, and has the umbrella the Morton Salt girl carries. [Another 2025 update: My friend Sid informed me that an edition with the cover is on Goodreads, so I switched over to it. Thank you, Sid!] A number of the poems in this book date from the year her husband, Ted Berrigan, died of cirrhosis of the liver. Here's a poem from later that year:

I didn't write
"Joe's Jacket"
about the way I
felt today. Luckily

I had "Joe's
Jacket" to read
instead. Is it
my jacket, too?

Yes, as poetry will, still,
protect me from all
real
harm.

There's also a poem called "The Ten Best Issues of Comic Books" which consists of a numbered list of comic books. Now I want to go find them and read them, but I'm too lazy and there's too much else to do and read. But I do love Alice Notley.

[Vincent Scarpa · Rating 4 out of 5]

“in this serious love world
that one
where something oddly music
will pass through your
night
and it will be me
sweet me”

[meowdeleine]

At night the states
you who are alive, you who are dead
when I love you alone all night and
that is what I do
until I could never write from your
being enough
I don’t want that trick of making
it be coaxed from
the words not tonight I want it
coaxed from
myself but being not that. But I’d
feel more
comfortable about it being words
if it
were if that’s what it were for these
are the
States where what words are true
are words
Not myself. Montana, Illinois.
Escondido.

[C.S. Carrier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally kickass. The titlepoem is one of my favorite things ever. I'm still trying to articulate my relationship with this book.

[Cléo]

🥲

[joel · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I walked fiery and / talked in the / stars of the automatic weapons"

[Zack]

O my i loved this one. I think it's my favorite notely i've read so far. So smart and so emotional at the same time.