For the past three years, Michael Pedretti has honored Frank Shatz with a poem in honor of his birthday.
Pedretti, a longtime friend of Shatz’s, is a former theater professor as well as an author, poet and founder of an international movement theater organization. The three poems appear together in Pedretti’s latest book of poetry, “Nonpareils.”
“Frank’s story is one of courage, resilience and quiet brilliance,” Pedretti said. “His presence has shaped this community in ways that cannot be measured, and it has been an honor to mark these milestones with words.”
On his 98th birthday
He holds court
At his salon.
Wise for his age
We listen
Tales of survival,
Wrong turns,
Influence,
Chances taken.
His column defines Wednesday
Bringing us to poets
And international leaders
Filtered through hope and optimism.
Making sunshine
No matter the sorrow
Clouding our vision
Or tears shed for barbarity.
Now at ninety-seven,
He scurries across campus
Pouring out words
Of trust, history, and awe.
He mutters,
“Seventy-four years —
Married —
I was a lucky man.”
Eyes sparkling
We pause before Reves Center —
Silence says it all
As he remembers
Before and with Jarka —
Emery Reves, Madeleine Albright,
Hungary, the Rivera, Yugoslavia
Lake Placid, Williamsburg and more.
“Happy Birthday,” we thunder,
“Ninety-eight at last!”
We want to hear about the past —
He talks of one hundred.
Looking Back @ 99
Out of Parkan
Came George,
A printer, poet, forger, and
Frank, sporting a Levente
Decorated with a Fire Cross,
Carrying forged passports
Fresh off George’s printer
Concealed in a bag filled
With a kilo of white flour and
Half a dozen Napoleons
As ready bribes.
He made some generals a little richer
Thousands of refugees safer
A few less hungry.
Once delivering
A suitcase of gold
To Adolf Eichmann
Ransoming hundreds
Earmarked for his gas chambers.
He married wise,
Escaped,
Wrote three thousand columns,
Interviewed the finest
And the brightest,
Made the case for kindness
And understanding.
Some will remember him
For outwitting the Arrow Cross,
Escaping from a slave-labor camp,
Navigating through
Stalin’s paranoia playground —
Escaping his home country —
Once upon a time a democracy —
With little more than
The clothes on his back
And a stole away copy
Of his bible,
“The Anatomy of Peace,”
Persisting solely on wit
Ingenuity and instinct.
Others for his ubiquitous beret,
The Reves Center at William and Mary,
Originating the Frank Shatz Award,
Writing “Reports from a Distant Place,”
Appearing on PBS.
No doubt, there are some
Who will wax over
The catalogue of the
Powerful and famous
He befriended and interviewed:
Winston Churchill,
Henry Kissinger,
Madeleine Albright,
Margaret Thatcher,
Among the hundreds.
Looking back,
Frank wrote,
“I think delivering
those fake IDs
to people in hiding
is the most enduring legacy I will leave behind.”
Looking Forward @ 100
A monarch
soared among us today,
Fluttered from you to me
Flew off only to return
To grace our day.
We gather to listen.
“I’m ready to fill my wings,
Mirror the sunshine,
Leave disapproval
In the cocoon,
Propel against the flow,
Elude the squall,
Flutter before danger,
Take a chance.
Peace, fairness, and kindness
Are in our power.
As I begin year one hundred and one
The future seeks me and you,
Follow, if you care.”
A monarch
soared among us today,
holding our eye,
bewitching regret.
For a moment
releasing us from our cocoon
of conceit, greed and fear
moving us to flap our wings,
Reflect the sun,
Construct majesty,
Soar to alight tenderly,
Embrace joy.
It takes a century
and the loss of sight
to sip the nectar spur
bent toward the sun.
Follow, if you dare.
https://www.dailypress.com/2026/02/25/a-tribute-to-frank-shatz/
