{"id":6453,"date":"2018-05-10T09:51:36","date_gmt":"2018-05-10T09:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/?p=6453"},"modified":"2019-02-11T07:58:23","modified_gmt":"2019-02-11T07:58:23","slug":"contusions-selected-poems-by-gary-beck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/contusions-selected-poems-by-gary-beck\/","title":{"rendered":"Contusions. Selected Poems by Gary Beck."},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: we welcome the return of Gary Beck a prolific poet who has been featured in many appearances here at Artvilla.com
\n‘Contusions’ is an unpublished poetry collection that explores the aches and pains we suffer from the assault of life. Gary Beck. See Bio below<\/em>
\n 
\ni.
\nA Peculiar Country
\n 
\nA nation suffers
\nmany setbacks
\nbefore dissolving
\ninto the trash bin
\nof history,
\nfor the long slide
\ninto obscurity.
\nThey occur at a critical time
\nwhen capitalism
\nhas beggared the nation
\nand the paid spokespersons
\ndelude the people
\ninto voting for a man
\nwho pledges to help the rich,
\nburden the dwindling middle-class,
\npunish the poor for being poor.
\nYet millions of voters
\nsupport the candidate
\ncommitted to hurting them.
\n 
\nii.
\n 
\nImbalance
\n 
\nExtreme weather
\nbrings storms, drought,
\nother disasters,
\nwhile unstable seasons
\nalter our psyches
\nand no longer leave us
\nsinging in the rain.
\n 
\niii.
\n 
\nLinkage
\n 
\nThe thread of life
\nconnects us all
\nin ways we rarely see,
\nbut animal, vegetable,
\nstriving, struggling
\nfor existence
\nfrequently intersect
\nnot always benevolently,
\ncausing fatal conflicts
\nthat often result
\nin final departure.
\n 
\niv.
\n 
\nSick Minds
\n 
\nConfrontations rise across the world,
\nsome into widespread warfare,
\nothers in domestic violence,
\nfew peacefully resolved.
\nPeople, nations, lose control
\nof basic sensibilities,
\nunable to negotiate
\nacceptable solutions
\nto conflicts of interest.
\n 
\nv.
\n 
\nClash of Interests
\n 
\nAmerica leads the fight
\nfor free speech,
\nwomen’s rights,
\ndemocracy,
\nagainst intolerant islam
\nunwilling to accept
\nother cultural values,
\nwhile China and Russia
\nhover like vultures
\nwaiting to pick the carcass
\nof the declining West
\nafter exhaustion
\nfrom the struggle
\nto do right.
\n 
\n 
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 
\n 
\nGary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theater director, and as an art dealer when he couldn\u2019t make a living in theater. He has 12 published chapbooks and 2 accepted for publication. His poetry collections include: Days of Destruction <\/em>(Skive Press), Expectations<\/em> (Rogue Scholars Press). Dawn in Cities, Assault on Nature, Songs of a Clerk, Civilized Ways, Displays, Perceptions, Fault Lines, Tremors and Perturbations<\/em> (Winter Goose Publishing) Rude Awakenings<\/em> and The Remission of Order <\/em>will be published by Winter Goose Publishing. Conditioned Response <\/em>(Nazar Look). Resonance<\/em> (Dreaming Big Publications). Virtual Living<\/em> (Thurston Howl Publications). Blossoms of Decay<\/em> (Wordcatcher Publishing). Blunt Force<\/em> and Expectations<\/em> will be published by Wordcatcher Publishing. His novels include: Extreme Change<\/em> (Cogwheel Press), Flawed Connections<\/em> (Black Rose Writing), Call to Valor<\/em> (Gnome on Pigs Productions) and Sudden Conflicts<\/em> (Lillicat Publishers). State of Rage<\/em> will be published by Rainy Day Reads Publishing, Crumbling Ramparts<\/em> by Gnome on Pigs Productions. His short story collections include, A Glimpse of Youth <\/em>(Sweatshoppe Publications) and. Now I Accuse and other stories<\/em> (Winter Goose Publishing). His original plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes and Sophocles have been produced Off Broadway. His poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines. He currently lives in New York City.
\n 
\n 
\n 
\n 
\n 
\n 
\nRobin Ouzman Hislop<\/strong> is Editor of Poetry Life and Times<\/a> his publications include All the Babble of the Souk<\/em> <\/a>and Cartoon Molecules<\/em> <\/em><\/a>collected poems and Key of Mist<\/em> <\/em><\/a>the recently published Tesserae<\/em> <\/em><\/a>translations from Spanish poets Guadalupe Grande <\/a>and Carmen Crespo visit Aquillrelle.com\/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop <\/a>about author. See Robin performing his work Performance (Leeds University)<\/a> .<\/p>\n

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Editor’s Note: we welcome the return of Gary Beck a prolific poet who has been featured in many appearances here at Artvilla.com ‘Contusions’ is an unpublished poetry collection that explores the aches and pains we suffer from the assault of life. Gary Beck. See Bio below   i. A Peculiar Country   A nation suffers … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572,781,58,808,796,366,401,43],"tags":[198,18,3,815],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6453"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6453"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6858,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6453\/revisions\/6858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}