LoginMay 2023 Notable Author: Karl Shapiro
Shapiro Claims Traditional Poetry Stifles Creativity
Karl Shapiro was born in Baltimore, Maryland, his family moved to Chicago, and then returned to Baltimore where Shapiro finished his education at Baltimore City College. He attended the University of Virginia (1932-1933), the Peabody Institute (piano performance major), and finally Johns Hopkins University (1937 to 1939), but never completed his degree. He wrote poetry all through high school and college with his first works published in 1935.
His involvement in World War II was as a company clerk with the United States Army stationed in the Pacific Theater of War, specifically New Guinea. There Shapiro wrote the poems that became V-Letter and other Poems. Literary success came quickly for Shapiro for in 1945, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in poetry for V-Letters and then from 1946 to 1947, he served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress.
Shapiro, a Jew, first wrote traditional form poetry, but then felt traditionalist poetry stifled a poet’s creativity and shifted to a style similar to Walt Whitman. He also considered himself an iconoclast and wrote poetry to challenge and chastise. He regularly targeted dehumanized technocracies that “fostered urban decadence and sent men and women to war without regard for their worth as persons.” He openly proclaimed his Jewishness and set himself against Modernism.
Shapiro was fortunate to find continuous work in Academia throughout his working career. Johns Hopkins (1947 to 1950), Chicago (1950 to 1956); University of California, Berkeley (1955–1956), Indiana University (1956–1957). He was most influential as professor of English and editor of Prairie Schooner at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (1956-1966). After briefly joining the faculty of the University of Illinois Chicago from 1966 to 1968, he moved to the University of California, Davis, where he became professor emeritus of English in 1985. It was while he was at UC-Davis that Shapiro was awarded the Bollingen Prize in Poetry (1969).
Genre: Poetry
Poetry is a form of literature that evokes a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience or a specific emotional response through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm.
Sample Reading List: Person, Place and Thing; V-Letter and other Poems; To Abolish Children; The Old Horsefly; Essay on Rime; Trial of a Poet; Poems of a Jew; The Bourgeois Poet.
Writer's Prompt - Fun With Words
Fun With Words - Maryland Writers’ Association (MWA) invites you to have fun writing poetry like Karl Shapiro. Using up to 100 words, pick a topic or issue that you feel could be challenged or chastised and do it in poetical form.Title your work and submit to: https://marylandwriters.org/Notable_Maryland_Authors by the 22nd of the month to receive an MWA Fun With Words submission certificate. Selected responses to be published with next month’s article and on the MWA website.
Submit Your FUN WITH WORDS Prompt
Gail Walsh
Jun. 3, 2023SIGHTS AND SOUNDS - See debris - Low tide - Clean the Bay - Listen, Listen - Mating call - Black bird with orange feathers - Oriole? - Where is female? - There, on a marsh shrub - Ignore, ignore - Leave me alone! - Persistent singing and - Flying fast passed - Chasing mate - Up and down - What fun! - Walk, walk - Oysters, young and old - Look, read - Life cycle - Green and gold - Field of grasses - See dead crab - Part of motor - Old plywood - Debris, debris - Too bad - Child talking to mom - Why mom? - Inquisitive - Because. - Dad playing peekaboo baby - Monarch butterflies abound in wetlands - Spied a blue heron - Statuesque in the marsh grasses -
Ruth Ticktin
Jun. 3, 2023CHANCE - A single chance at life is all we get- Maybe believing there’s gotta be more - an after, a nameless- of nothing of something -- Here and now is the life we’re given- Merely collecting moments to hold - as an opportunity- for transcendency-- In corn cane or grass maze- Trapped yet we venture forth- around forward backward sideways- a path a fork a lotta choice-- This way and that, in and out we breathe- Time and capability on our side- hope spring up don’t let subside- return of hope our sole chance--
Beth Smith
Jun. 3, 2023HEART REPAIR - Easy climb, labored breathing,- Looking ahead, he falters.- Aching shoulders, nothing more- Suddenly space condenses, time whirls.-- Room small, cold, crowded,- Masked figures circle in white.- Quiet talk, reassuring, frightening.- Lights dim, mind retreats.-- Legs sliced, chest opened, heart stopped.- Eight hours of numb then lightning bolts of pain.- No glowing tunnel beckoning, no God reaching down.- Wires crisscross, machines beep, people in and out.-- Soft voices comfort, gentle hands touch.- Dazed eyes, bruised body, slight smile.- Heart beats on, no hugs please.- Take a step, then another, the walk goes on.--
Lawrence McGuire
Jun. 3, 2023JEREMIAD TO AN EMPTY PEW - Why bother to disturb this unsettled silence?- Perhaps I hoped for recompense.- I haven't seen you in awhile; I've kept away.- Why have I done that? I cannot say.-- Absence sharpens the eye; I note the damage, years of abuse.- From faux marble tile your support has come loose.- Your seat has split; it creaks at the slightest weight.- A mote of dust could strain the wood to separate.-- The Church has left you in disrepair,- Its priests ignoring scars you are forced to bear,- And one of the world's worst bureaucracies- Continues to descend into a collusion of hypocrisy.--
Jon Hillbilly Anthology Ketzner
Jun. 3, 2023Hate The Peepee God Gave Me - I love life - I abhor strife - Don’t wanna be a big baby - Call me a punk - I want new junk - Hate the peepee God gave me-- Bullies dig chokin - Folks’re heart broken - Won’t pay for my surgery - I’m a hot mess - In my summer dress - Loathe the peepee God gave me-- Not trying to be “woke” - Not a damn joke - Gotta be who I should be - Cried and cried - Tried suicide - Despise the peepee God gave me-- Don’t like my sass? - Kiss my ass - Won’t be a miserable phony - Screw how you feel - Just not a big deal - Hate the peepee God gave me--
Christine Hickey
Jun. 3, 2023DOOMSDAY SCENARIO – Millions on the move- Crossing mountains, oceans- Ignoring borders, limits- Let loose a plague- Ignore how it spreads- Until millions are infected- Argue the need for barest precautions- Storm the Capitol- Terrorize the Messengers- Retreat in Shame- Pleading Innocence- Warming Poles- Retreating glaciers- Wildlife endangerment- Disappearing rainforests- Drug traffic, DEA, ATF- CIA, FBI….. Alphabet soup- Billions spent without a dent- Corruption and confusion remain- Fires rage, earthquakes lie in wait- Tsunamis follow- Still land grabbing continues- Ethnicity determines rights- Amidst all this…. have I forgotten anything- Oh yes - The Russians are comin-
Cindy Herndon
Jun. 3, 2023GENDER CHOICE - Male or female.- It isn’t a choice.- It’s a revelation.- Known at 14 weeks- With only two possibilities:- Boy or girl.-- Behavior is a choice.- Attitudes are a choice.- Appearance is a choice.- Expectations are a choice.- Gender is not.-- A body’s “equipment” determines the choice.- A bird needs wings.- A fish—scales.- A polar bear—fur.- Gender is not a choice.-- Adam would have died alone- If Eve had not been his mate.- It takes male and female- To make life.-- Can a watermelon have a banana skin - Or an apple an orange rind?-- Gender is not a choice.--
Nikita Elliott
Jun. 3, 2023I DON’T CARE - I don’t care what you think- I don’t care what you say- I don’t care if you stare- I don’t care if you cringe- I don’t care if my hair is messy- I don’t care if I look ugly- I don’t care if my shoes don’t match- I don’t care if my clothes don’t go together- All I care for is a roof on my head- A bed to sleep on- Food to eat- Clean water to drink- But most of all, I care for my family- The people who love me- Taught me how to read, write, talk, listen and play Rook- They are the #1 people I care for-
Ellen Coffey
Jun. 3, 2023ROBBERY - Susan clapped her hands with joy.- Margaret smiled from another room.- A hard fought war was finally won- the day we took our bodies back.- Fast forward to these meaner days.- I hear Ruth fuming from her grave.- A new storm front is forming now- since they stole it all away. -
Burton Clark
Jun. 3, 2023ABANDONDED - I’m old and rundown, - I was loved and kept.- Happiness filled me,- Sadness did visit.-- A row house, build long ago, - I was home.- Giving shelter, comfort, and value to those,- Who built, bought, used, sold, taxed me.-- Now no one cares for me,- On cold nights a stranger may sleep here.- Abandoned is my designation,- There are many in the city.-- Eyesore, derelict, blight, dangerous,- They call me.- The name I fear - death trap,- Firefighters call me that.-- I injured them before,- They know my risk.- Tonight, three firefighters will die,- This tragedy is not my fault.--
Doris Brady
Jun. 3, 2023REQUIEM - She came out of Belfast, a marvel to see,- rising out of the seafoam, nine decks A to G. - No comfort nor padding nor frill was forgotten. - Her journey began at the docks of Southampton.-- The passengers boarded, all settled in nicely,- With cocktails, nibbles, and hot steaming coffee.- But that cold April night, only five days along, - All came to an end as an awful undoing. -- The stars shone on high, the sea was like glass,- but the captain, unblinking, had pushed her too fast.- So many wrong turns and unheeded cautions,- sent Titanic to the bottom of the beautiful ocean. -- (Titanic is supposedly protected under UNESCO. - But at least 5,000 artifacts have been “salvaged.”) -
Steve Baker
Jun. 3, 2023BAD NEWS PEDDLES FAST - Mayhem, woe and scandal too, people love it when you lose; - they're here to tell you all about it, they are the T.V. News!-- Raking muck is what they do, they're here to please your carnal needs.- They know you like the guts and gore, so if it bleeds it leads!-- The anchor's name is 'Ghastly Carnage,' He likes to talk of nature's wrath,- and there's some cutie on the scene, her name is 'Delta Bloodbath.'-- It seems to be that T.V. News is only there to keep you spooked- perhaps we'd all be better off, if the T.V. News got nuked!--
Cindy Herndon
May. 31, 2023GENDER CHOICE - Male or female It isn’t a choice. It’s a revelation. Known at 14 weeks With only two possibilities: Boy or girl. Behavior is a choice. Attitudes are a choice. Appearance is a choice. Expectations are a choice. Gender is not. A body’s “equipment” determines the choice. A bird needs wings. A fish—scales. A polar bear—fur. Gender is not a choice. Adam would have died alone If Eve had not been his mate. It takes male and female To make life. Can a watermelon have a banana skin Or an apple an orange rind? Gender is not a choice.