Monday, 8 April
Poetry presentation: Gregg Shapiro, “Tattoo,” UA 34-5
Reader: Kristy Kaizer
Respondent: Keely Cobble      Recorder: Julie Sahmel 

I searched for background information on Gregg Shapiro, but I could not find the information I needed.  While searching on the Internet, I came across Gregg’s e-mail address.  I was reluctant to e-mail Gregg because I was not sure if it was actually him and if it was I did not know how he would react to my questions.  I mustered up the courage and sent my e-mail message requesting an informal interview.  Much to my surprise he e-mailed me back.  The following is the information Gregg sent me concerning his personal background and his poem Tattoo.   

Background:

Gregg Shapiro:

About your background:

I was born in Chicago in June of 1959. In 1962, I moved, with my family, to Skokie, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, directly north and west of the city. I attended college for a year and half in Chicago, and then quit for a year and a half. In 1980, I moved to Boston to finish my college education. I lived in Boston and Washington, DC (where I did three semesters in a Masters of Fine Arts degree program at American University) until 1989, when I returned to Chicago.

I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Emerson College in Boston in 1983.

What are you currently doing?
Currently, I am a freelance journalist. I am the music editor for two publications and a contributing writer to more than a dozen others. I write music and movie reviews, and I also do interviews with musicians, authors, and people in the film and theater industries.
I continue to write and publish my poetry and fiction in a variety of literary journals, anthologies, textbooks and on websites.

What motivated you to write “Tattoo”:

At one time, Skokie had a large population of survivors of concentration camps and the Nazi atrocities of World War II. Even though both of my parents were born in the United States, I had many friends whose parents were survivors. The interactions between my friends' parents and their children was very different from the way I interacted with my parents. I came to realize that these parents, who had seen the worst that mankind had to offer, were intent on sheltering their children from the horrors that they had experienced. The poem, written in the voice of the child of a survivor, is strictly a persona poem.

The seed for "Tattoo" had been germinating for a long time.

-What year-
I believe the poem was written in 1981.

If your parents were born in the States, why the poem about a survivor.
The poem is as much about the child as it is about the survivor. It is about the relationship through the child's eyes.

Read Poem 

My Interpretation of the Poem “Tattoo”:

            4 stanzas – six lines per stanza

            No punctuation

            First Person

            Literary Objective

                        2A Narrative or viewpoint –second generation

                        2b Setting—America

            Stage 5: Rediscovery or reassertion of ethnic identity. 

“spreads himself over me spilling his protection, like acid”

            Acid is a strong word in junction with protection

            The father’s protection is overwhelming to the child

            The protection hurts

Rather than explain the past the father creates a hurtful barrier, which he thinks is protecting the child but it is doing the reverse, hurting the child. 

The father does not want the ‘Old world” to corrupt the child

“I wear him like a cloak, sweat under the weight”

            A cloak being unrevealing- a cover up

            Covers up details protecting him from the memories

            The child sweats under the weight because the burdens of the past are

 Heavy. 

“There are stories in the lines on his face

the nervous blue flash in his eyes

his bone crushing hugs”

            His face tells of his hardships

            He is nervous and afraid of the unknown- not knowing what is going to

happen next.

The bone crushing hugs perhaps indicate his feelings of lose of loved ones.

He knows how it feels to loose people around him therefore giving a meaningful, crushing hug shows the person being hugged how much they are loved.

He seems to be a silent man who may only be able to express his feelings through physical affection. 

“I am drowning is his silence

trying to stay afloat on curiosity

Questions choke me and I swallow hard”

            The child wants to know what happened

            The child does not probe its father on what happened

The child tries to satisfy it’s curiosity by being consumed with it’s own thoughts of it’s fathers memories. 

The child wants to ask questions but perhaps out of respect, he swallows the questions

“We don’t breathe the same air

speak the same language

live in the same universe”

Their view of the world is different because of what the father went through

Their lives will remain separate and their language will remain separate if the memories are not told.

“I am sorry my life has remained unscathed”

            The child feels sorry for the father

            The child cannot identify with it’s father

            Why----The child feels guilty?????

“His scars still bleed, his bruises don’t fade”

            The father’s memory is fresh and continues to haunt him

“wrap him in gauze and velvet”

            Gauze for dressing wounds

            Velvet for a “pretty” outer covering—it is sensational to the touch

            Gauze on the inside to cover the still bleeding wounds, velvet on                                   the outside to mask the wound

Questions: 

            1.  Why the descriptive words gauze and velvet?  What do you think they mean?

            I chose gauze and velvet because they are two fabrics that offer a level of comfort. Gauze, because it is used for medicinal purposes. Velvet, because it is one of the softest materials. (Gregg”s explanation for gauze and velvet.)

2.  How do you feel about the poem knowing that Gregg was not from a family of concentration camp survivors?

Discussion Summary Question #1: Why do you think Shapiro chooses the fabrics "gauze" and "velvet" to absorb the shocks and treat the wounds of the speaker's father?

Dr. White: I liked your take on the gauze and velvet.

Keely: Velvet changes depending on how you rub it. It can be soft or hard, depending on which way the fabric is stroked.

Terri: Gauze is associated with healing. Velvet is used to wrap precious things, like jewelry.

Will: Velvet might protect the wound from the scrutiny of the outside world -- hide the wound with pretty fabric. How do you feel knowing that the poet was not the child in the poem?

Ginger: Well, close friends might have insight into their friends' pain. If the parents are too protective, an outsider could help. It might help to have understanding neighbors or friends.

Jennifer: The poets adopts a first person point of view. In saying "my father," etc. he makes the meaning more powerful.

Krystal: A person outside the family might have more perspective, more objectivity.

 Terri: We had this discussion in my poetry class. The class members all thought that in order for a poet to be a good poet, he/she must be writing about personal experiences. Turns out, according to Dr. McNamara, we were wrong. A good poet can write about anything.

Dr. White: Yet, poetry is considered to be very personal. Good poems make us feel that there must be some sort of connection there. Most instructors, however, caution students not to attach biographical data to poems because this could limits the effectiveness of the poem to the poet. If we resist interpreting the poem through biographical data, the story in the poem can become our story too.

Chantel: An outsider might be able to communicate meaning with less emotion. Some people become caught up in emotion and find they cannot communicate.

Keely: If the poet was close to these friends, their story could be disturbing for him too.

 Dr. White: Before we close the discussion, I would like to point out that this poet also worked as a journalist. Sometimes poets have to take many jobs in order to make a living.