All the News

By Gary Beck

PROMPT — The way I see it ...

Before TV news

newspapers were powerful.

Radio personalities

had a following,

but the daily paper

informed the public.

Once TV news showed

live and in color

the events of the day,

explained for our convenience

by sincere panels,

interspersed with commercials

to sell us all kinds of things

we do or do not need,

then the return to the news,

fire, flood, murder, war, disease,

only interrupted

by the sponsor’s message

to buy the offered product.

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Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theater director and has worked as an art dealer when he couldn't earn a living in the theater. He has also been a tennis pro, a ditch digger and a salvage diver. His original plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes and Sophocles have been produced Off Broadway. His poetry, fiction, essays, and plays have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines and his traditionally published books include 43 poetry collections, 18 novels, 4 short story collections, 2 collections of essays, and 8 books of plays. Gary lives in New York City.