Martine Bellen is the author of five collections of poetry including The Vulnerability of Order, Copper Canyon Press; Tales of Murasaki and Other Poems, Sun & Moon Press which won the National Poetry Series Award; and Places People Dare Not Enter, Potes & Poets Press. A bilingual collection of poetry, Musée Magie, was published in 2003 in Germany by Waldgut Verlag (translator, Hans Jürgen Balmes). She has also written the libretto for Ovidiana, an opera based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses (composer, Matthew Greenbaum) that has been performed in New York City and Philadelphia. Ms. Bellen’s poetry has appeared in numerous anthologies including This Art: Poems About Poetry, Copper Canyon Press (2003) and The Convergence of Birds: Writing Inspired by Joseph Cornell, DAP (2001). She has been a recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Fund for Poetry, and the American Academy of Poets Award. She is a contributing editor and on the board of directors of Web del Sol (webdelsol.com). Ms. Bellen has taught at many colleges and universities including Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, New York University, Rutgers University, and Hofstra University. Buy her books here. See some work here and here. 1. What is the first poem you ever loved? Why? “Preludes.” I was in third or four grade when I read it. I grew up in New York City, in an apartment building, and I would smell the neighbors’ steaks at six o’clock and across from my building was a vacant lot. Eliot captured, for me, how my neighbors—through their smells and sounds, their fragments and traces—were my walls, floors, and doors. Looking over the poem now, I realize that Eliot wasn’t intending to emphasize what I took from “Preludes.” Still, “Preludes” launched my love of poetry because, for me, this poem unearthed a quiet subtlety that did nothing less than shift my understanding of how I fit in the world. 2. What is something/someone non-“literary” you read which may surprise your peers/colleagues? Why do you read it/them? “Cat Fancy” magazine. I was a subscriber until they rejected a photo I sent of my kitties. (I assuage my guilty pleasure knowing that William Burroughs was a co-subscriber.) But, honestly, I don’t think it would surprise anyone who knows me, or even anyone who’s had one conversation with me. Why do I read it? Mostly for the pictures, and sometimes I get a tip that will be useful to Rocco or Daily Alice. 3. How important is philosophy to your writing? Why? If Buddhist texts are considered philosophy then philosophy is extremely important to my writing. I’m particularly drawn to Zen Buddhist texts because they circle around the conundrum / paradox that words are not important and yet they are extremely important—words are the material of the koan. The relationship between the experiential and the word is a vital one in (my) poetry and Zen, as I understand it. 4. Who are some of your favorite non-Anglo-American writers? Why? I don’t think that I think of poets as Anglo or non-Anglo for a couple reasons—One is that I sadly only read English so all the poems I read, including non-Anglo non-English ones, have been altered to become more Anglo since they’ve been translated into English. The other reason is that as a poet I’ve always felt like a traveler without a time and country, that when I’m writing I’m outside time and place, and, in the same way, as a reader of poems I try to allow myself to travel to meet the poem. This is not to say that poems aren’t situated in culture—I just try my best not to enter them as “the other.” I’ve done a lot of culture jumping in my work—Precolumbian Mexico, Heian Japan, etc. and I situate myself in the work of others by allowing the writing to find a very personal place inside me. 5. Do you read a lot of poetry? If so, how important is it to your writing? I feel privileged that some poem finds its way to me daily. Some people probably don’t have that privilege. I didn’t always have it. And yes, it’s extremely important that I read these poems that come into my life, and that my life has poems in it and that I pay attention to them, as well as all the other elements that make up my life. 6. What is something which your peers/colleagues may assume you’ve read but haven’t? Why haven’t you? I read a lot, but there is a lot I haven’t read. Why? Because there is just too much great stuff to read. 7. How would you explain what a poem is to my seven year old? I guess I’d tell him (or her) to spend the next 48 hours figuring it out and then let me know. 8. Do you believe in a Role for the Poet? If so, how does it differ from the Role of the Citizen? I only talk for myself. Clearly, poets have been (and many are today) political, social, and spiritual leaders. Poets have been the voice of their tribes or peoples. Poets have been the guardians of community stories and visions. I’m not that. It’s not that my work isn’t political (what isn’t political?), but I don’t speak for a community. That’s not the way that my world is structured. So I can’t say that there’s a “Role of the Poet,” as though all poets need to assume a role of “Sybil” or that social responsibility as the voice of “the people” is inherent in the job description of poet, though some poets might find that they do assume the role of oracle, orator, voice to the voiceless. In my humble opinion, better a poet than an actor. 9. Word associations (the first word which comes to mind; be honest): Too many words overlap for me so I’m incapable of being honest. 10. What is the relationship between the text and the body in your writing? The text is the body. The body is the text.