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These Green-Going-To-Yellow: Poems
Poems explore a variety of experiences from the writer's life, exploring individual identity and the many facets of the self
- GenresPoetry
69 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1981
7 people want to read
About the author
Marvin Bell
67 books59 followersMarvin Bell was born in New York City on August 3, 1937, and grew up in Center Moriches, on the south shore of eastern Long Island. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Alfred University, a Master of Arts from the University of Chicago, and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa.
Bell’s debut collection of poems, Things We Dreamt We Died For, was published in 1966 by the Stone Wall Press, following two years of service in the U.S. Army. His following two collections were A Probable Volume of Dreams (Atheneum, 1969), a Lamont Poetry Selection of the Academy of American Poets, and Stars Which See, Stars Which Do Not See (1977), which was a finalist for the National Book Award.
Since then, Bell has published numerous books of prose and poetry, most recently 7 Poets, 4 Days, 1 Book (Trinity University Press, 2009), a collaboration with six other poets, including Tomaz Salamun, Dean Young, and Christopher Merrill, and Mars Being Red (Copper Canyon Press, 2007) , which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award.
Bell’s other collections include Rampant (2004); Nightworks: Poems, 1962-2000 (2000); Ardor: The Book of the Dead Man, Volume 2 (1997); A Marvin Bell Reader: Selected Poetry and Prose (Middlebury College Press, 1994); The Book of the Dead Man (Copper Canyon Press, 1994); Iris of Creation (1990); New and Selected Poems ( Atheneum, 1987);
He has also published Old Snow Just Melting: Essays and Interviews ( University of Michigan Press, 1983) , as well as Segues: A Correspondence in Poetry with William Stafford (Godine, 1983).
About his early work, the poet Anthony Hecht said, “Marvin Bell is wonderfully versatile, with a strange, dislocating inventiveness. Capable of an unflinching regard of the painful, the poignant and the tragic; but also given to hilarity, high-spirits and comic delight; and often enough wedding and blending these spiritual antipodes into a new world. It must be the sort of bifocal vision Socrates recommended to his drunken friends if they were to become true poets.”
Later in his career, Bell created the poetic form known as the “Dead Man poem," about which the critic Judith Kitchen has written: “Bell has redefined poetry as it is being practiced today.”
Beginning in 2000, he served two terms as Iowa’s first Poet Laureate. His other honors include awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The American Poetry Review , fellowships from the Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts, and Senior Fulbright appointments to Yugoslavia and Australia.
Bell taught for forty years for the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, retiring in 2005 as Flannery O’Connor Professor of Letters. For five years, he designed and led an annual Urban Teachers Workshop for America SCORES. Currently he serves on the faculty of Pacific University’s low-residency MFA program. He has also taught at Goddard College, the University of Hawaii, the University of Washington and Portland State University.
Bell has influenced generations of poets, many of which were his students, including Michael Burkard, Marilyn Chin, Rita Dove, Norman Dubie, Albert Goldbarth. Robert Grenier, Joy Harjo, Juan Felipe Herrera, Mark Jarman, Denis Johnson, Larry Levis, David St. John, and James Tate.
Marvin Bell also frequently performs with the bassist, Glen Moore, of the jazz group, Oregon. He and his wife, Dorothy, live in Iowa City and Port Townsend, Washington.
source: http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/ma...
Bell’s debut collection of poems, Things We Dreamt We Died For, was published in 1966 by the Stone Wall Press, following two years of service in the U.S. Army. His following two collections were A Probable Volume of Dreams (Atheneum, 1969), a Lamont Poetry Selection of the Academy of American Poets, and Stars Which See, Stars Which Do Not See (1977), which was a finalist for the National Book Award.
Since then, Bell has published numerous books of prose and poetry, most recently 7 Poets, 4 Days, 1 Book (Trinity University Press, 2009), a collaboration with six other poets, including Tomaz Salamun, Dean Young, and Christopher Merrill, and Mars Being Red (Copper Canyon Press, 2007) , which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award.
Bell’s other collections include Rampant (2004); Nightworks: Poems, 1962-2000 (2000); Ardor: The Book of the Dead Man, Volume 2 (1997); A Marvin Bell Reader: Selected Poetry and Prose (Middlebury College Press, 1994); The Book of the Dead Man (Copper Canyon Press, 1994); Iris of Creation (1990); New and Selected Poems ( Atheneum, 1987);
He has also published Old Snow Just Melting: Essays and Interviews ( University of Michigan Press, 1983) , as well as Segues: A Correspondence in Poetry with William Stafford (Godine, 1983).
About his early work, the poet Anthony Hecht said, “Marvin Bell is wonderfully versatile, with a strange, dislocating inventiveness. Capable of an unflinching regard of the painful, the poignant and the tragic; but also given to hilarity, high-spirits and comic delight; and often enough wedding and blending these spiritual antipodes into a new world. It must be the sort of bifocal vision Socrates recommended to his drunken friends if they were to become true poets.”
Later in his career, Bell created the poetic form known as the “Dead Man poem," about which the critic Judith Kitchen has written: “Bell has redefined poetry as it is being practiced today.”
Beginning in 2000, he served two terms as Iowa’s first Poet Laureate. His other honors include awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The American Poetry Review , fellowships from the Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts, and Senior Fulbright appointments to Yugoslavia and Australia.
Bell taught for forty years for the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, retiring in 2005 as Flannery O’Connor Professor of Letters. For five years, he designed and led an annual Urban Teachers Workshop for America SCORES. Currently he serves on the faculty of Pacific University’s low-residency MFA program. He has also taught at Goddard College, the University of Hawaii, the University of Washington and Portland State University.
Bell has influenced generations of poets, many of which were his students, including Michael Burkard, Marilyn Chin, Rita Dove, Norman Dubie, Albert Goldbarth. Robert Grenier, Joy Harjo, Juan Felipe Herrera, Mark Jarman, Denis Johnson, Larry Levis, David St. John, and James Tate.
Marvin Bell also frequently performs with the bassist, Glen Moore, of the jazz group, Oregon. He and his wife, Dorothy, live in Iowa City and Port Townsend, Washington.
source: http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/ma...
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 18, 2011
These Good-Going-To-Better Poems
Marvin Bell’s, “These Green-Going-To-Yellow” was an amazing poetry book. With my opinion being stated and clear, I’d like to proceed with my review. Before I read the compilation book I read the poem “These Green-Going-To-Yellow” as an assignment for my Creative Writing class. I was thoroughly impressed by the ingenious methods which Bell used to assimilate his body parts into those of a Gingko tree’s and become one with nature, as well as the appreciation for nature’s beauty. The poem inspired me not only to write; but to go out to the library and pick up a copy of his compilation of poems entitled “These Green-Going-To-Yellow”. The poem turned out to not only be extremely powerful and meaningful as a stand-alone text; but was also expertly weaved to sum up a very wonderful, insightful poetry book.
The book follows the life of Marvin Bell and paints the scenes in which he has had different experiences in his lifetime. His poems mainly focus on the aesthetic beauty of nature in places he has visited throughout his travels, from hedge apples, to volcanoes, mountains and eventually gingko trees; with many more natural beauty aspects engraved within his literature. The book centrally focuses on the importance of preserving nature, how it is important to our survival and how it’s never wronged us as humans often do. Marvin Bell sought to preserve nature by writing about it within his text, and centralizing it as a theme. Even if humans defile all that is natural in the world, Bell provides a beautiful glimpse at the wondrous natural beauties that are indigenous to all parts of the world. Beauty is perception, but the way Bell perceives these natural habitats and the world around him is truly beauty in itself.
The book does not solely document the natural values that the various places Bell ventured to had to offer, yet was an account of many unique experiences that each independently helped him see the beauty of the world or learn more about himself. It was almost reminiscent of Matsuo Basho’s “The Narrow Road to the Interior” set to a greater scale; as it had the overwhelming feel of a journey across the world recounting experiences in which Bell paid homage to other great writers such as Hemingway and Dante Alighieri, discovering more about the world around him, himself and different cultures which inhabit the world; all the while writing poetry to compile into what would eventually become this expertly woven text.
Overall the poetry book “These Green-Going-To-Yellow” was without a doubt one of my favorite reads as a writer with high intolerance for bad writing; whether you are a writer, nature enthusiast, reader, or anyone else for that matter I recommend reading this book. The compiled poems contain elements beautifully applied to paper which provide insight on Bell as an individual as well as a look at what’s truly important in the world around us. With that being said, the only aspect the book was lacking in was bad written poetry.
Marvin Bell’s, “These Green-Going-To-Yellow” was an amazing poetry book. With my opinion being stated and clear, I’d like to proceed with my review. Before I read the compilation book I read the poem “These Green-Going-To-Yellow” as an assignment for my Creative Writing class. I was thoroughly impressed by the ingenious methods which Bell used to assimilate his body parts into those of a Gingko tree’s and become one with nature, as well as the appreciation for nature’s beauty. The poem inspired me not only to write; but to go out to the library and pick up a copy of his compilation of poems entitled “These Green-Going-To-Yellow”. The poem turned out to not only be extremely powerful and meaningful as a stand-alone text; but was also expertly weaved to sum up a very wonderful, insightful poetry book.
The book follows the life of Marvin Bell and paints the scenes in which he has had different experiences in his lifetime. His poems mainly focus on the aesthetic beauty of nature in places he has visited throughout his travels, from hedge apples, to volcanoes, mountains and eventually gingko trees; with many more natural beauty aspects engraved within his literature. The book centrally focuses on the importance of preserving nature, how it is important to our survival and how it’s never wronged us as humans often do. Marvin Bell sought to preserve nature by writing about it within his text, and centralizing it as a theme. Even if humans defile all that is natural in the world, Bell provides a beautiful glimpse at the wondrous natural beauties that are indigenous to all parts of the world. Beauty is perception, but the way Bell perceives these natural habitats and the world around him is truly beauty in itself.
The book does not solely document the natural values that the various places Bell ventured to had to offer, yet was an account of many unique experiences that each independently helped him see the beauty of the world or learn more about himself. It was almost reminiscent of Matsuo Basho’s “The Narrow Road to the Interior” set to a greater scale; as it had the overwhelming feel of a journey across the world recounting experiences in which Bell paid homage to other great writers such as Hemingway and Dante Alighieri, discovering more about the world around him, himself and different cultures which inhabit the world; all the while writing poetry to compile into what would eventually become this expertly woven text.
Overall the poetry book “These Green-Going-To-Yellow” was without a doubt one of my favorite reads as a writer with high intolerance for bad writing; whether you are a writer, nature enthusiast, reader, or anyone else for that matter I recommend reading this book. The compiled poems contain elements beautifully applied to paper which provide insight on Bell as an individual as well as a look at what’s truly important in the world around us. With that being said, the only aspect the book was lacking in was bad written poetry.
August 30, 2007
Marvin is a badass. that is all there is to it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews