GARY BECK - POEMS

Gary Beck spent most of his life as a theater director. He has 11 published chapbooks, 10 published poetry collections, 5 more accepted for publication. He has 3 novels and 1 accepted for publication. 2 short story collections and 1 accepted for publication. He lives in NYC.

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                                      Recurrent Dream


​I sleep a tortured sleep
and do not dream sweet dreams,
possessed by fear and anger
Inimical forces pursue me.
I flee in terror,
captive of apprehensions
as monsters of imagining
draw closer as I run,
but cannot escape
the imminent doom.
Sweat pours off me,
my body twitches, trembles
and just before capture
conscious recognition
of emotional peril
compels me awake,
once again rescued
from my tormented self.
 
 
 
 
                                          Curfew


Time flows
an elastic current
invisible
inexorable,
freezes, melts, thaws,
measured by mankind
to order events,
counting the days
that pass faster
until the clock stops.

 
 
                                      Closed Doors

Children grow up
in the projects
with the same dreams
as advantaged youth,
punctuated
by tv offerings
of goods and services
they will not possess.
But desire fuels the appetite
for material things
only acquired
by crime, sports, education,
never enough opportunity
to sate more than a few.
 
 
 
                                                         Instructions

Pre-school children
walk down the street
tethered together
adults holding the leash
controlling their wards
like domestic animals
linked together
to protect the herd,
reminding us
we are akin
despite all efforts
to be different
from other creatures.

 
 
                                    Intermezzo

I sit in the plaza at lunchtime
watching the workers, tourists
constrained by time,
snatching a few moments
of idling engines
before resuming
pursuit of the dollar,
pursuit of the bargain.