I- Towards a Definition

I actually write poetry myself, I have had writes block for quite sometime now. It has been a while since I have written a poem but reading "Mystery of Small houses" by Alice Notely has really inspired me to write again. I love being able to read good poetry and get the motivation to creat art of my own. I absolutely fell in love with her poem entitled " I- Toward a Definition" something about this poem drew me in. I wanted to make sure i picked the shortest poem to read. I was skeptical that the lengthy poems might be intimidating so I read this poem first and it was the best choice to make. I have never felt the grief of loosing someone, yet reading this poem I felt as if I could identify what loosing a loved one might actually be like. Her way of turning her own auto-biography into a poetic piece is something I aspire to do one day.

This book concentrates on this balance of her own memory and her biography. What she remebers is then carried out by her ability to tap into her own imagination from her personal experiences. She takes us form her childhood in New York City to being a college student, then being a East Village poet in the 1970s in a scene of growing friendships. To being a mother of two sons and loosing her husband. Which leads us to her current life in Paris. Each poem plays like a scene in a movie and you can feel that the poems are coming from within Notely's core and we are able to get a glimpse of her emotional, artistic, and spiritual personality. At the end of the poem she is stripped of her past restrictions and seems to be aware of her true nature of ones self.