Iris of Creation

Marvin Bell

A collection—Bell’s eighth—that displays the poet at the height of his powers. Emotional and intellectual rigor are everywhere abundant in the poems of Iris of Creation. Marvin Bell’s poems often begin where personal, philosophical, and political experiences intersect. Bell’s quirky, lively imagination and idiomatic language admit a plethora of influences and experiences, articulating the need for personal transformation from within. This collection displays the poet at the height of his powers.

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ISBN: 9781556590320

Format: Paperback

Dark Brow

The dark brow of the creek wrinkles over time
as if something had been born there.
Scavenging all night, the water that runs there
brings things from time past.
Some of these things are the wrappers, the coats,
of what it meant to say, “I tasted”
or “I felt.” And this, whatever it is, is not that.

All of us have felt the fatigue of dark water,
the burden massed at yard’s edge,
and in the line of the garden
beyond the onions, there are fresh tears.
I do not say we should live forever,
for who could bear it,
only that we should one day enter completely into life.

In the beginning, as at the end, there was nothing,
though “was” is the psychic’s verb,
the one that proves the existence of a current
by rising after it has passed
and shaking its head furiously, spraying water.
“I was,” we say. “Therefore, I am.” We also believe
a piece of us has washed away and may be worth something.

About the Author

Marvin Bell, author of twenty-three books of poetry and essays, has been called “an insider who thinks like an outsider,” and his writing has been called “ambitious without pretension.” Reviewing The Book of the Dead Man for The Georgia Review, Judith Kitchen noted: “These new books by Marvin Bell are doing to poetry what has occasionally been done before—sending it into new and original territory. Bell has redefined poetry as it is being practiced today.” His latest books are After …

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Reviews

“Undeniably original.” —Publishers Weekly

“A mature and self-assured collection of verse… These poems offer a strong counter to the critics of ‘the state’ of modern verse.” —Library Journal

“Iris of Creation is an important new work by an important poet—fluent, witty, and very wise.” —Donald Justice

“Reading these poems, one is immediately struck by the poet’s range of styles and themes, by his unique view of the world, by the depth of emotion gracefully, effortlessly conveyed… A major new collection by one of our finest and most acclaimed poets.” —Booklist

“In Iris of Creation, [Marvin Bell] charts a realm in which contradictory emotional evidence is the norm. In this book Bell is more vulnerable than ever before—and more powerful… Marvin Bell continues to amaze and delight his readers.” —Bloomsbury Review

“One often senses that a Bell poem begins where most poets quit.” —Ohio Review

“A sense of intelligent wonder pervades this thinking man’s guide to the emotions where Bell is, as always, a master of tone.” —North American Review

“Iris of Creation is the handsomest book I’ve seen in a while. Copper Canyon Press has designed, printed, and bound it in a manner that should be the envy of the trade… What I have long admired in Marvin Bell’s work is his willingness to think aloud, to speechify and speculate, to entertain ideas.” —J. D. McClatchy, Poetry