The writing of a poem is, for me, in the first place, an almost total act of abandon leading to discovery leading to recognition. — Marvin Bell Copy Share Image
Prose is prose because of what it includes; poetry is poetry because of what it leaves out. — Marvin Bell Copy Share Image
I'm partial to coffee shops, brain work, and poems on the page. I write after midnight. Sometimes, twisty syntax happens, and I surrender. — Marvin Bell Copy Share Image
“The "I" in the poem is not you but someone who knows a lot about you.” — Marvin Bell Copy Share Image
I speak to you in one tongue/ but every moment that ever mattered to me/ occurred in another language. — Marvin Bell Copy Share Image
Much of our lives involves the word “no.” In school we are mostly told, “Don't do it this way. Do it that way.” But… — Marvin Bell Copy Share Image
Learn the rules, break the rules, make up new rules, break the new rules. — Marvin Bell Copy Share Image
“You are not beautiful, exactly. You are beautiful, inexactly. You let a weed grow by the mulberry and a mulberry grow by the house.… — Marvin Bell Copy Share Image
Our job is to become more and more of what we are. The growth of a poet seems to be related to his or… — Marvin Bell Copy Share Image
