Bell shares secrets of his craft during two-week writing residency

A conductor of words, Marvin Bell beat the air in rhythm to his own creation during his poetry reading, Feb. 21. His right hand moved in time to the cadence of meter while his sweet, melodious voice “like corn silk” caressed the crowd.

“In life you are never free; in poetry you can be free,” Bell said during his reading. “Writing poetry is like jumping off a cliff and hoping to fly” — in poetry you usually can. You’ve got to write the good stuff and the bad stuff. It’s all stuff,” he advised.

Full to the brim with wisdom and wit, Marvin Bell, or Marvin as he requested to be called, served as poet-in-residence for two weeks, Feb. 14-25.

“Instead of having a speaker for one night, we wanted to slip in a residency,” Kent Dixon, associate professor of English, explained.

Bell arrived on Feb. 13 to begin a full schedule of visiting classes, and holding seminars and open lunches.

“Not only is Marvin Bell a spectacular poet, he is a phenomenal professor who is able not only to teach the craft, but share his love of poetry and fellow poets,” Dan Stroeh ’00 said.

“There’s no one way to write and no right way to write,” Bell told the students during his stay. “You must abandon oneself to the medium; end up at a place where you never thought you’d be. I had to figure out poetry for myself; everybody does.”

One of the centerpieces of Bell’s visit was a seminar named in his honor. “Marvin Bell teaches the artist, not the art,” Dixon stated in his introduction of Bell.

“Or, rather, he prepares the ground for the art to teach the artist.”

Dixon and April Lindner, visiting assistant professor of English, co-facilitated the seminar. “He brought a wonderful spirit and enthusiasm to the seminar,” Lindner noted.

“I think that he was really giving of himself. Not just as a teacher, either, but on a one-to-one basis. He really spoke with and listened to students,” she added.

“I would really like to see the seminar happen again every spring, if not every other year.” “I enjoyed it,” Bell said. “I like teaching and got to know the teachers.

[My wife] and I got around a bit, too — Yellow Springs, Xenia, Dayton, Cincinnati, Clifton Gorge, Great Serpent Mound. I’ve done quite a lot of circuits or one-week residencies.

It’s fun, but you barely get to know the scene before you have to leave.” Born in New York, Bell is the author of 17 books, including his forthcoming Nightworks: Poems 1962-2000.

He is also a member of The Academy of American Poets, The American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Guggenheim Foundation.

His visit was sponsored by the Wittenberg Series and the Faculty Endowment Fund.

—Jessica Gillota ’00