Poet in Person: Alan Shapiro

Then, I ran into this familiar gentleman in the Poets in Person Series from Cortland Review.  I commented:

I know Alan Shapiro! I was one of those 2000 - 3000 students he taught, when I was an undergraduate at Northwestern University. If memory serves me right, I was a sophomore (1978 - 1979) when I studied with him. Small world, eh :) This video is too funny! 
That sophomore year, I took the first of three poetry courses with Charles Hartman, and the second was with Shapiro.  The third was with Mary Kinzie at the beginning of my junior year.  I remember Shapiro to be earthy, which is to say casual and approachable, thoughtful and wryly humorous.  I believe Howard Nemerov was one of the poets he emulated, so his poetry often had vivid imagery and metered verse.  In turn, Shapiro taught me and influenced me thus.  I credit all of my NU professors for helping me build a strong foundation for the rigors and techniques of poetry, which many poets and would-be poets now sorely lack and with which I explored a range of emotions and matters.