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Alice Notley

Lady Poverty

  • 1 Remember What I Came Here to Do
    to This World Very Little Actually
    | Translations: de
  • 2 Lady Poverty | Translations: de
  • 3 From In the Pines | Translations: de
  • 4 IN THE CIRCUIT | Translations: de
  • 5 The Secret | Translations: de
  • 6 [I stand here in whose eyes]
  • 7 [Woman with antlers]
  • 8 [Like a scratchy record]
  • 9 Millions of us
Language: english
Translations: german (Lady Armut)
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Lady Poverty

Sings in the gullies
To all you go without is added more as the years
Youth's face health certain friends then more and
so to get poorer
life's arrow—tapers thinner sharper

She always sang there to purify
not the desert always pure
but me of my corrupt furor
So losing more further along in this dream of
firstrate firmament fireworks—
consigned to roam above brown dirt occasional
maxilla, and be shaped badly—
twisted internally join her truly

She's I

She should be

the shape of a life is impoverishment—what
can that mean
except that loss is both beauty and knowledge—
has no face no eyes for
seasons of future delivery—rake the dirt
like Mrs. Miller used to
down at the corner had a desert yard and raked her dirt.

Beginning in poverty as a baby there is nothing
for one but another's food and warmth
should there ever be more
than a sort of leaning against and trust a food for
another from out of one—that would be
poverty—we're taught not to count on
anyone, to be rich,
youthful, empowered
but now I seem to know that the name of a self is poverty
that the pronoun I means such and that starting so
poorly, I can live

© Alice Notley
From: Mysteries of Small Houses
Penguin Group US, 1988
ISBN: 978-1-4406-2125-3
Audio production: Literaturwerkstatt Berlin 2014
Categories: life & relationship

Translations:

Language: german

Lady Armut

Singt in den Rinnen
Ihr alle ohne was kommt mehr dazu derweil die Jahre
Gesundheit Antlitz Jugend manche Freunde mehr und
so wird man wohl verarmen
Lebenspfeile – bleichen dünner spitzer
           
Sie sang immer um zu läutern
nicht die Wüste die immer rein
doch mich und mein wüstes Zetern
So verlor ich mehr und mehr in diesem Traum aus
feinstem Firmamentenfeuerwerk –
zum Streunen über braunen Staub verdammt war mal
ein Oberkiefer, schlecht geformt –
intern verdreht  jetzt folge ihr

Sie bin ich

Sie ist es besser

die Form des Lebens ist doch stets Verarmung – was
heißt das eigentlich
außer dass Schwund auch Schönheit ist, und Wissen –
und kein Gesicht hat keine Augen für
die Zeiten zukünftiger Erfüllung – Staub harken
wie früher Mrs. Miller
unten an der Ecke war ihr Wüstengarten harkte darin Staub

Ist aller Anfang Armut wie ein Säugling gibt es nichts
für einen als die Nahrung eines anderen seine Wärme
braucht man eigentlich je mehr
als diese Art Vertrauen oder Neigung ist Nahrung
in einem für andere – das wäre ja
Armut – man lehrt uns, nie auf andere
zu zählen, reich zu sein,
jugendlich, selbst mächtig
doch seh ich jetzt dass jedes Selbst mit Namen Armut heißt
nicht anders das Pronomen ich und dass in diesem Anfang ich,
so ärmlich, leben kann

Aus dem Englischen von Uljana Wolf
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(From In the Pines)   
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Alice Notley

photo © Alice Notley
* 08.09.1945, Bisbee, United States
lives in: Paris, France

Alice Notley has published over thirty books of poetry, including (most recently) Culture of One and Songs and Stories of the Ghouls, and the chapbook Secret I D.  With her sons Anselm and Edmund Berrigan, she edited both The Collected Poems of Ted Berrigan and The Selected Poems of Ted Berrigan.  Notley has received many awards including the Academy of American Poets’ Lenore Marshall Prize, the Poetry Society of America’s Shelley Award, the Griffin Prize, two NEA Grants, and the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Poetry. She lives and writes in Paris, France.

 photo © Alice Notley
Publications
  • 165 Meeting House Lane

    1971

  • Phoebe Light

    1973

  • Incidentals in the Day World

    1973

  • For Frank O'Hara's Birthday

    1976

  • Alice Ordered to Be Made

    1976

  • A Diamond Necklace

    1977

  • Songs for the Unborn Second Baby

    1979

  • Dr. Williams' Heiresses

    1980

  • When I Was Alive

    1980

  • How Spring Comes

    1980

  • Waltzing Matilda

    1981

  • Tell Me Again

    1982

  • Sorrento

    1984

  • Margaret & Dusty

    Poems

    Coffee House Press, 1985

  • Parts of a Wedding

    1986

  • At Night the States

    1988

  • From a Work in Progress

    1988

  • Homer's Art

    1990

  • To Say You

    1993

  • Selected Poems of Alice Notley

    1993

  • Close to Me and Closer...

    (The Language of Heaven) and Desamere

    1995

  • The Descent of Alette

    Penguin, 1996

  • Mysteries of Small Houses

    Penguin, 1998

  • Disobedience

    Penguin, 2001

  • From the Beginning

    2004

  • Coming After

    2005

  • Alma, or the Dead Women

    2006

  • In the Pines

    Penguin, 2007

  • Grave of Light

    New and Selected Poems, 1970-2005

    Wesleyan University Press, 2008

  • Reason and Other Women

    Chax Press, 2010

  • Culture of One

    Penguin, 2011

  • Songs and Stories of the Ghouls

    Wesleyan University Press, 2011

  • Secret ID

    The Cantenary Press, 2012

  • Negativity's Kiss

    Presses universitaires de Rouen et du Havre, 2013

  • Manhattan Luck

    Heart's Desire, 2014

  • Benediction

    Letter Machine Editions, 2015

  • Certain Magical Acts

    Penguin Poets, 2016

  • Eurynome's Sandals

    Presses universitaires de Rouen et du Havre, 2019

Awards
  • 1988 Los Angeles Times Book Prize

  • 2002 Griffin Poetry Prize - International Winner

  • 2007 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize

  • 2015 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize

Links
  • Alice Notley @ PennSound

    archive of sound & video recordings

    Website
  • Alice Notley @ Poetry Foundation

    biographical essay, many poems & audio recordings as well

    Website

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