Poet says good science writing, like good poetry, asks questions and evokes a sense of wonder. His new book, "" (), takes inspiration from biology, astronomy and physics.
The poems move between the intimately familiar and the vastly unknowable, considering both the frustrations of political hypocrisy and the mysteries of human consciousness.
Homeric Turns, Part 2 The gods laugh, that鈥檚 what they鈥檙e good at, laughing.They laugh at the crippled god, his shriveled legs, His hobbling, and his mother, in a little Shadow play of suffering at the sight of him, Her crippled baby, laughs the loudest, and then Laughs even louder when she hurls him out Of heaven, and he falls, and while he falls The laughter echoing around him is The measure of the pure unbreathable cold Height of the heaven he鈥檚 falling from and through, Hilarity of light and air, delight鈥檚 Effacement of everything but itself. And the crippled baby tumbling to earth In a charade of terror? Don鈥檛 let him Deceive you鈥攈e鈥檚 a god鈥攈e鈥檚 laughing too.
Host Frank Stasio talks with Shapiro, professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
