A Day's Portion

From Library Journal "To arrive at 62 years,/ which I will do next Monday,/ and still to take pleasure/ in writing, marks me as a lucky man," Shapiro states. With similar modesty, he seeks out quiet moments within metropolitan bustle. But even the trivial can spark grave concerns, as when bypassing a beggar makes him feel as if he's "hardened his heart" against "the whole future of the race." Entire credos are put forth in four lines; sometimes insightful, these run the risk of trivializing the spiritual texts at their source. But there's plenty to praise in Shapiro's ninth collection. The poems in the first section offer cityscapes every bit the equal of those of his objectivist mentors. Poems in the final section are steeped in foresight and hindsight, recalling and sometimes refuting friends and deeds. Particularly memorable are reminiscences of his World War II army days, an update to the poems in his early volume, Battle Report (1966), which guaranteed him a place in the history of modern poetry. Recommended for most poetry collections.- Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor, "Soho Weekly News," New YorkCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. Product Description "A fine, lucid, experienced poet....Harvey Shapiro belongs near the center of any galaxy of good poets..."--Harvard Book Review "Seasoned insight and tenacity of spirit...."--Publishers Weekly From Publishers Weekly In a poem called "Snapshot" Shapiro ( National Cold Storage Company ) writes: "I was listening to a black / clarinetist play Klezmer / at the Knitting Factory on Houston Street /in the bleak December of my 65th year. / Beer was Buber in my head. / My Jewish eyes were brimming. / I shuffled my feet. / I shook my head." The brief entirety of the poem and its verbatim emotion are characteristic. In his ninth collection, Shapiro chews an urban cud; he may pronounce, yet doesn't perform; and his emphatic sentence-making gives a memorable grounding in this place, not in that one--usually New York. He makes the strong seem strong, not heroic. He is warm, never effusive. Or, as "Portrait" puts it: "He said everything / with a passionate conviction / . . . So the conviction came / not from knowledge / but from feeling." That must be why Shapiro's voice, here as before, seems tersely authentic. There are times, it's true, when his style of purposeful declaration is dogmatically sure of itself, as though that sureness had been chosen over challenges outside of it, routing complexity. If so, then sureness should be called into question. But Shapiro is willing to do that. He can't, like the rest of us, overcome all bounds, yet seems ready to admit them with a realist's grimace. And with poetry, in snapshots. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review 1943 After The Fall Another Story Assimilation Aubade August, From Brooklyn Before Sleep Belief Systems Bible Lesson Blowing Smoke The Boast Bronx Elegy Brooklyn Heights Brooklyn Nights Celebrations City Ethic A Day A Day's Portion, Sels. The Defense Education The Encounter Fact Family Man Fancy For Charles Reznikoff For Paul Celan And Primo Levi Genesis Goodbye, Rio His Age, Sels. History Hollywood Note How It Ended Iggy Jerusalem: 1. Jerusalem: 2. Jerusalem: 3. Lessons 1. Lessons 2. Lessons 3. Lit Crit Losses Lower East Side Loyalty Masha Meditation On A Brooklyn Bench Monday In New York Natural History New York Note New York Summer Ocean Dawn On My Portrait By Rose Graubart On Writing Pleasure Politics Portrait Questions Saroyan Self-portrait Shoppers Snapshot A Story Sunday Sunday School Table Scene A Tel Aviv Notebook 1. A Tel Aviv Notebook 2. A Tel Aviv Notebook 3. A Tel Aviv Notebook 4. A Tel Aviv Notebook 5. A Tel Aviv Notebook 6. A Tel Aviv Notebook 7. The Text These Are The Streets Tonight, Sels. Tranquility Vineyard Autumn When The Spirit Years Agio -- Table of Poems from Poem Finder® About the Author Harvey Shapiro's first book, THE EYE, was p