David Shapiro, recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters l977 Morton Dauwen Zabel Award in Poetry, is the author of nine volumes of poetry and many of literary and art criticism. He has received fellowships from both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was a professional violinist in his youth. In l971, he was nominated for the National Book Award. His memorial for Jan Palach with John Hejduk, the late architect, was dedicated by President Vaclav Havel at the Castle in Prague. He resides in New York City. Buy his books here. See some work here and here. See a couple of other interviews and then some here and here. Questions For You What was there to do? And so I--I forget. I what? Stole the blue jay? I loved you without a future, without an image, without reference What do you represent, what are you a copy of? Where is the dragon that David dreamt he drove? But what is closure when we are so open And what is lack of closure when we are so close? Do you think if the Erectheum could not last that this no will last? Who was the sleeper? Who lived in the shoe? I know that I love the verb not to know. Do you love it? Dazzled by absence, by your chair, the chair of Salome? Men call this pleasure like a place of rapport But it--is it bliss to juggle the body like a house with great pain persuaded to stand Do you believe in this fabulous affair Your hair falls like an inventory on your breast Fine, in what sense fine? Hmmm? In the house one asks, Whose house is this? Is it mine? Cricket, cricket, aren't you afraid that you're really too loud? I saw the red bird too But where's its wing? When shall we wake to the recession of dreams? When will my love come and shut my eyes and kiss them as though we played two parts in a comedy? But how did the spiders come out of the ditches and how did the men come out of the houses at the end of the winter into a soft night? What are they killing sick men for They are really on fire How long have I known you, so beautiful and not told you about it? It's morning. Dawn has brought the ships out. Dawn keeps breaking our ships. Can I tie your hair again?