diff --git a/oslo_messaging/notify/listener.py b/oslo_messaging/notify/listener.py
index 9de09f8a8..2df209ad3 100644
--- a/oslo_messaging/notify/listener.py
+++ b/oslo_messaging/notify/listener.py
@@ -20,22 +20,6 @@ A notification listener subscribes to the topic - and optionally exchange - in
 the supplied target.  Notification messages sent by notifier clients to the
 target's topic/exchange are received by the listener.
 
-If multiple listeners subscribe to the same target, the notification will be
-received by only one of the listeners. The receiving listener is selected from
-the group using a best-effort round-robin algorithm.
-
-This delivery pattern can be altered somewhat by specifying a pool name for the
-listener. Listeners with the same pool name behave like a subgroup within the
-group of listeners subscribed to the same topic/exchange.  Each subgroup of
-listeners will receive a copy of the notification to be consumed by one member
-of the subgroup. Therefore, multiple copies of the notification will be
-delivered - one to the group of listeners that have no pool name (if they
-exist), and one to each subgroup of listeners that share the same pool name.
-
-Note that not all transport drivers have implemented support for listener
-pools. Those drivers that do not support pools will raise a NotImplementedError
-if a pool name is specified to get_notification_listener().
-
 A notification listener exposes a number of endpoints, each of which contain a
 set of methods. Each method's name corresponds to a notification's priority.
 When a notification is received it is dispatched to the method named like the
@@ -62,6 +46,28 @@ support requeueing, it will raise NotImplementedError at this point.
 The message is acknowledged only if all endpoints either return
 oslo_messaging.NotificationResult.HANDLED or None.
 
+*NOTE*: If multiple listeners subscribe to the same target, the notification
+will be received by only *one* of the listeners. The receiving listener is
+selected from the group using a best-effort round-robin algorithm.
+
+This delivery pattern can be altered somewhat by specifying a pool name for the
+listener. Listeners with the same pool name behave like a subgroup within the
+group of listeners subscribed to the same topic/exchange.  Each subgroup of
+listeners will receive a copy of the notification to be consumed by one member
+of the subgroup. Therefore, multiple copies of the notification will be
+delivered - one to the group of listeners that have no pool name (if they
+exist), and one to each subgroup of listeners that share the same pool name.
+
+**NOTE WELL:** This means that the Notifier always publishes notifications to a
+non-pooled Listener as well as the pooled Listeners. Therefore any application
+that uses listener pools **must have at least one listener that consumes from
+the non-pooled queue** (i.e. one or more listeners that do not set the *pool*
+parameter.
+
+Note that not all transport drivers have implemented support for listener
+pools. Those drivers that do not support pools will raise a NotImplementedError
+if a pool name is specified to get_notification_listener().
+
 Each notification listener is associated with an executor which controls how
 incoming notification messages will be received and dispatched. Refer to the
 Executor documentation for descriptions of the other types of executors.