Idolatry
Arise from refuge bed,
throw off the covers of darkness,
join the totalitarian morning
and sing your surrender.
Pledge not to question your leaders
as long as you are fed.
Righteously tend your church
while your neighbor is the sacrifice.
Consign your children to corruption
on the playing fields of schoolyards.
Never wonder why few resist deceptions,
reject false prophets,
deny available temptations.
Cars, clothes, culture, delusions,
subsistence crusts for millions.
We defuse the artist’s rage with money,
sate the politician’s virtue with privilege,
for these rewards maintain our innocence.
We destroy those who will not worship
the golden calf.
By Midwest Book Review on May 4, 2010
Format: Paperback
Written by an accomplished poet, playwright, essayist, and documentary director, “Expectations” is a volume of Gary Becks poetry showcasing his own unique approach to utilizing free form verse to explore how ordinary people in extraordinary times deal with the conflicting demands of their lives. Penned by a superbly gifted wordsmith, Beck’s poetry is as original as it is memorable. “Expectations” is very highly recommended and rewarding reading. ‘Serena’: Serena, withered / sits among swollen grape vines / bursting purpose spurts of potency / dreaming of a back seat / in another life / when a migrant hand / plucked the ripeness of her breast / a ravenous traveler / lusting a land of opulence. / Serena turned into a pair of shears / rusting in an orchard.
By Matthew W. Evelsizer on June 15, 2010
Format: Paperback
Expectations, when one delves into the definitional, subjective splays of this word combining anticipation with the collocated virtue of hope, the reader involved with Gary Beck’s poems, can ascertain then, not simply a topographical realization of interpersonal revelation, but too, an involvement with Beck’s environmental occurrences–those of valid imagination that sketches various tableaus with wondrous imagery and essential dexterity.