Walter Griffin

Walter Griffin (born August 1, 1937) is an American poet who lived in East Point, Georgia for decades and after long illness, died peacefully at his home on November 30, 2020 at the age of 83. He was a beloved father, grandfather, and father-in-law. He is the author of ten collections of poetry and his work has appeared in more than 400 national and international publications. Born Jasper (Jay) Walter Griffin in Wilmington Delaware, he is the only son of William Samuel Griffin and Nina Opal Blalock. After his father abandoned the family when he was less than one year old, he lived with his mother and relatives in various places including Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Europe. He attended Gordon Military School (now Gordon State College) in Barnesville, Georgia from 1951 to 1954. He enlisted in the US Army in Zweibrücken, Germany in 1955 and served in the infantry. After his military stint, stateside and in Europe, he hitchhiked from New York to California in search of what he called "the essence of the core of reality.” He held various odd jobs, including a bellhop on Nantucket Island, a carnival barker in Florida, and a boiler room manager for construction companies in Ohio and Atlanta. It was during this period that he began to take writing seriously; a turning point came in 1959 when he began sneaking into classes at Ohio State University in Columbus. He walked into a bookstore to get out of the cold, picked up a copy of The Paris Review, and was stunned by a Lewis Simpson poem, "The Boarder".  "It was so poignant and complete, and described my life at that point" said Griffin. "It made me want to get better as a poet, and for any reader that I might ever have, to get the same feeling as I did for Simpson." He eventually left the road, settled into the Atlanta suburbs, married, had a son (Paul Anthony Griffin), but was divorced a little over a year later. After several of his poems were featured in Harper in 1972, his work began to appear in most of the major literary journals. His collection Night Music (1974) won both the International Small Press Book Award and Georgia Poet of the Year Award from the Southeastern Regional Council of Authors and Journalists. Western Flyers (1990) was co-winner of the University of West Florida Panhandler Chapbook Series competition. After a stint as adjunct instructor in poetry for Emory University Evening Classes program, he founded and led the Atlanta Poets Workshop for 27 years. While his success as a poet has been largely outside of the academy, he spent 11 years teaching in the poetry-in-the-schools programs, visiting more than 110 schools, colleges, prisons, and youth detention centers in three states. In 1978, he was named Master-Poet-in-Residence by the Georgia Council for the Arts and Humanities. Jasper Walter Griffin is survived by his son, Paul Griffin, his daughter-in-law, Martina Griffin, and his three granddaughters, Nina Maria, Anja Nicole, and Colleen McCall. He was loved greatly and will be missed immeasurably. In lieu of flowers and gifts, the Griffin family requests that donations be made in honor of Walter Griffin to the Jones-Story Student Assistance Endowment at Gordon State College. Please use the link provided and remember to select the Jones-Story Student Assistance Endowment from the pull-down menu when making your donation. Gifts to this fund are tax-deductible and provide one-time emergency assistance to students in dire financial need.

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