C. '81

    In the peoms Mysteries of Small Houses by Alice Notley, I noticed a pattern in these poems with the mention of pills and the name Ted. I did a little research and discovered that Tom was the late husband of  Notley. Ted Berrigan died from cirrhosis of the liver. Ted like his wife was a poet. Ted was supporting his family by writing papers for Columbia students, then tried assorted odd jobs, and finally taught at various universities.

    I did a close reading on the poem "C. '81", I chose this poem because of the struggle her family went through. I would probably classify her poetry as an autobiograpy. This poem seems to tell a story of her hardships and struggles she faced, from having no money, and having to borrow money from people. Notley struggled to raise her two sons alone while continuing to develop her poetry. She seems to feel that people with more money than her family look down on her: "People with more money than us don't seem to trust us we're always looking to borrow five ten or twenty dollars we only want to have just enough money, today they think it all "goes for pills" how much do they think pills cost we have no expensive habits I mean as in other people's worlds clothes, travel, decor, entertainment we do buy books we dont have a phone for seven years, no checking account"

   When I seen the mention of pills in this poem what I got from it was the medication her husband was taking for his disease before he passed away, but when I looked further into it, Ted's illness went untreated, because there was no treatment really; and they couldn't afford  doctor visits. Looking back at the history of their lives they seemed to be struggling poetry writers trying to make ends meet with two children living in the lower east side of New York City.