The Shine Journal

Little Dreams

Count the number of just so little dreams
and if you have ten fingers enough,
slowly darling you almost missed one,
you will barely find ten shy friends
when pressed will visit an impatient moment
not so long to make you feel most sure,
‘cause just so little dreams
smile stiff-jawed too.





Anguished Vision

 
I will not be a fading man
of tired words, yearning lost places.
I’ve cultivated city streets
and paved the desolate forests,
the passing visions of strangers,
the wandering cries that deny rest,
sing sleepless nights of twisted hopes,
that plague will spare our greedy land,
as it’s carried by fur creatures
rushing to be coats for seniors,
their shabby banner of protest
the sad flush of expectations,
passing the days like wringing hands
fluting each other in despair,
blind to the moment of conquest
that squanders dawn’s deliverance.
 
 
 
  
Urbana

Glittering lights
speak cities to strangers,
kissing the congested distance,
the promenade through sensual streets,
the bus rides through sleaze town,
the unknown route to exile,
the rapid transit to discovery.

Bio: Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theater director and 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 chapbook'Remembrance' was published by Origami Condom Press and  'The Conquest of Somalia ' was published by Cervena Barva Press. A collection of his poetry'Days of Destruction ' has been published in 2009 by Skive Press. Another collection'Expectations ' is being published by Rogue Scholars Press. His original plays and translations ofMoliere,Aristophanes and Sophocles have been produced Off Broadway and toured colleges and outdoor performance venues. He currently lives in New York City, where he is busy writing. His poetry and short stories have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines including The Shine Journal and its first annual anthology.

Motivation: I wanted to explore disturbing images of our time.

Image by: Alison Watt Jackson