Filmmaker, writer and raconteur John Waters can add another occupation to his resume: He’s now a published poet.
Waters noted during a recent interview with the hosts of the “Las Culturistas” podcast that a poem he wrote has been printed in a national magazine, and it’s the first time that has happened.
“I just had my first poem published in The Atlantic,” he told hosts Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers. “Now I’m officially a beatnik!”
Entitled “Catch,” Waters’ poem was highlighted in the Books section of The Atlantic’s May 2026 issue and featured an illustration by Liz Hart. It was promoted on The Atlantic’s social channels in late April, with a photo of a muddy baseball.
Baltimore Fishbowl is not reproducing the poem in its entirety, because it’s behind a paywall. The magazine is sold on newsstands for $13. Subscribers can read it online at www.TheAtlantic.com.
Those who read this first published poem by John Waters will find it’s an autographical tale that touches on subjects he has spoken about at some length, including his athletic prowess or lack thereof, and his fraught relationship with sports in general.
“Catch” recounts a time when Waters was a child and his father tried to throw a ball to him and the dilemma it presented for him.
“What would I do if I caught a ball?” Waters asks in the poem. “I have nowhere to put it. I’d certainly never throw it back.”
The poem goes on to reveal what happened when his father threw the ball, the existential questions it raised for him, and the fallout from the incident. It’s certainly topical for May, when the baseball season is underway and balls are in the air. It can also be read as a cautionary account that’s likely to strike a chord with any number of kids who will never make it to the major leagues, or even the little leagues.
Waters writes with candor about his boyhood experience and raises weighty adult questions about the power dynamics of playing catch.
“Why do men need to be around balls? (the rubber kind),” he asks. “Are you more of a man if you throw a ball and less so if you catch one?”
‘Back to being a beatnik’
Based in Baltimore, Waters has written and directed 16 movies, including “Hairspray” and “Pink Flamingos,” and written more than a dozen books, including six screenplay books that were released in new formats over the past year.
A month before his poem was published in The Atlantic, Waters read it aloud as part of his keynote speech during the Association of Writers & Writing Programs 2026 Conference and Bookfair at the Baltimore Convention Center.
He prefaced his poetry reading by telling the audience that there were two forms of writing that he couldn’t claim to have done up to that point – writing a play and getting a poem published.
Having a poem in The Atlantic, he said, represented the fulfillment of a long-standing goal just as he was turning 80 on April 22. He mentioned his feat as a way of inspiring the writers in the room that it’s never too late to pursue a dream. After he read his poem, the audience gave him a standing ovation.
On the “Las Culturistas” podcast, Waters discussed how much beatniks were a strong cultural influence on him when he was growing up, and poetry was a big part of the beatnik culture.
“There was one culture only” that interested him, and “that was being a beatnik,” he said. “I wanted bongos…I went to coffee houses where they had poetry…I wanted to wear sandals, dirty sweatshirts…I wear turtlenecks to this day because of beatniks.”
Waters noted that Maelcum Soul, “the most famous beatnik in Baltimore,” was the star of his first movies, “Roman Candles” (1966) and “Eat Your Makeup” (1968). She was also cast to play the Wicked Witch in “Dorothy, the Kansas City Pothead,” but the film was abandoned after she died of a drug overdose in April of 1968.
Waters later cast Pia Zadora and Ric Ocasek to play beatniks in “Hairspray,” which was based on his memories of the 1960s. He frequently talks about Baltimore being “the last bohemia” in America. With the publication of his poem in The Atlantic, he said, he’s come full circle: “I went back to being a beatnik.”
Is SNL next?
Now that he’s a published poet, Waters brought up something else he’d like to accomplish.
“When am I going to host Saturday Night Live?” he asked Yang, who left the show in December after seven plus years. He started as a writer in 2018, became a featured player in 2019 and was promoted to repertory status before Season 47.
“That would be genius,” Rogers said.
“You would be wonderful,” Yang agreed.
“I could write a good one with the crew,” Waters said, referring to the fact that SNL guest hosts collaborate with the cast and staff writers to come up with sketches for the show. “It’s the only time I could ever write with somebody else.”
“Oh my gosh,” Yang said. “I’ll come back for that.”
