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Expectations: Poetry By Gary Beck

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Expectations! We start off with great ones, don't we? The American experience typically inaugurates our young with a high school diploma, an inspiring speech and a send off. "Go out and do great things! We have high expectations for you all."

Then comes life and reality tweaks our expectations, sometimes turns them on end or deflates them entirely. What is this phenomenon? How does this happen?

In Expectations, Gary Beck chronicles his own journey through life; shares the coming of age of his expectations. The very first poem, Abandoned, begins with the chronicler abandoned on a deserted road, with only his wits to guide him - he is Everyman, speaking for us all.

His expectations have changed through the disillusionments of his road, which have morphed into numerous indictments of our American sensibilities; I Sing My Land, Idolatry, Extravagance, Profit, Remembrance - each poem is a chapter; a header to this literary textbook on American Social Decay.

Gary Beck takes us through many chapters of his life experience. His imagery and ideas are stark, sharp and impossible to misconstrue; this life holds nothing but false realities, market-derived comforts, no substance. A verse from Remembrance is a fine example:

So suck contentment like a sponge
Hesitate before the final plunge
Hide behind our drab diversions
And pray, pray the universe is stable

Ouch! Many of us struggle with that lurking doubt about the genuineness of the American dream. Some of us are old enough to remember the indoctrination that the world is our oyster, but few would speak up to say, "Must not have been harvested in an r month." Gary Beck is not afraid to say it out loud and in crisp language. He strips illusion from everything. Here are a few examples of his adeptness:

In Renaissance, he presents tenets of faith that mouth empty promises, impossible to fulfill. Then shows how reason, unconstrained by faith, offers some hope of self-determination, but leads to the same emptiness.

So, where is the hope, the humanity? He sees it in the simplest things; uncovering acts of charity in a proffered can of beer in Charity; the crossing of a girl's legs in Underground Regrets; the foibles of adolescent education, contrary to curriculum, in Does Noble Caesar Cackle?; the joyous experiments in sexuality in I Still Remember and Discovery.

But, he has also seen the horrors of war; exposed it for the moneymaking monster that it is. He describes the absurdity of viewing war as a sporting event in Recon in Viet Nam, the senseless, sadly unnoticed deaths of his buddies in Grunt, the atrocity of war for oil in Gulf War, the paradigm of war to feed the power mongers and its reciprocal infectious taint of young warriors in Age of Madness.

The crowning work for this reviewer is Fragments of Conception. It is a work of fifteen fragments in which Mr. Beck recaps our history; starting with the first idea, the first word spoken, without fanfare, to bring our weak protestations out of random particles. He presents all aspects of our bleak human existence with such authority, almost prophetic; except he rejects prophecy. All our efforts to create this great life, to control any deviations from the perfect, bring us to these words:

We are beyond the protection of declarations,
fear erases our visions of glory,
our hopes are dairy hopes, automatically nourished,
the intervention of power is a daily visitation,
the silence that breathes in the evenings
is interrupted by screams and lamentations.

He continues to present our crimes, our voracious consumption of everything and each other, then concludes with a note of encouragement, suggests our hope for survival lies in the stars. We have messed it up pretty badly down here. He admonishes us to learn from all our faults and failings and then teeters us on the brink of decision. It's up to us from here.

Expectations is about expectations dashed; indignant accusations against this American Dream that set such unrealistic expectations in us all. Yes, these are mostly sober words, brilliantly written in Gary Beck's gripping verse, clearly stating what, for many of us, is only an unsaid dissatisfaction; a nagging thought. It is a heavy read - you cannot turn these pages lightly. But, you should, you know - we all need this exercise.


mh clay
Poetry Editor, [...]
June, 2010
[...]

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.

This collection begins existentially:

Abandoned in the desert

I dream rescues,

while the smiting sand

strips the shimmering flesh

from my rejected bones.

Where is the guide?

Wagon master of the soul's journey

fording rivers,

repelling ambushes,

then leaving me behind,

a companion to the voyage

who turned the wheel

harder than anyone,

but questioned the road.

Abandoned, pg. 17

Pondering the evidence of atmospheric whereabouts appears to be a meandering theme throughout this collection. Understanding Beck's advanced poetic abilities, posits an immediate understanding of his use of philosophical language, employed to devour clichés, although thematic episodes may be relatable to various readers:

Fission and fusion are conspiring

in covert collaborations

with entangling alliances,

to test the short term tenants

of White House, White Hall, Kremlin,

with abodes well endowed with powerful polemics,

that don't inform the public,

that unauthorized splitting

of misunderstood atoms

may be punishable by

contamination.....

destruction........

eradication........

despite timely intervention of

Habeas Corpus,

Geneva convention,

International inspection,

ephemera............
Prisoners are Entitled, pg. 33

Beck's ability to transpose reason and automatic displays of dismantling quotidian occurrences is an indigenous gift found in each of the poems finding existence in this collection; he understands language's various methods of coercing emotional realization of compatibility with the images he creates.

Discovery interacts with sketches of moments serenading physical embodiment:

Mumbles in the parlor

playthings of children fumble together

parental eyes elsewhere

moment of touch and blush.

Footsteps on the creaky sentry staircase

rush to mend disarray

nervous smile from couch to chair,

enter the destroyer of delight.

Social chatter of a passing age

grumbles of what used to be

exit with admonitions.

Shy look from couch to chair

insurance pause, quick move,

young hands touch and hold,

parents worry in a distant room,

young flesh meets, encourages.

pg. 62

Overall, Expectations represents some of Beck's finest work. As a prolific and widely published poet, he becomes, through metaphysical understanding, embodiment of poet and philosopher, and with his constructs of beautiful and entrancing language, this collection should become symbolic and ascertained as his premiere work of poetic creation.

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.

As a person who doesn't read much poetry I was amazed at how Mr. Beck's work captured my imagination in a way I've never experienced before. The thoughts and feelings it conjured up in me not only touched a deep emotional level but made me not want to stop reading until I had finished it. I think this is a wonderful book for both heavy readers of poetry and neophytes who have always been afraid to dip their feet in poetic waters. I'd also be remiss if I were not to mention that going through the book a second time is akin to exploring a magical world only to find new and extraordinary magical items each time you venture through it.

Joe Favale

Gary Beck's poetry is incredibly evocative, his language rich with meaning, resonance, touching deep chords of remembrances of one's own. While some themes are of struggle and disappointment, the stronger overarching direction is that of hopefulness, forward moving, with livingness itself a reward. I highly recommend this book to those who yearn to touch more than the everydayness of everyday.

Roberta Estar

Having read the PR blurb I was pleasantly surprised at how effectively Mr. Beck's poetry touches a common nerve and emotions. His themes are often about failure and disappointment and who among us is unfamiliar with both? What was special for me is the way that he expresses more than just failure and just disappointment but hidden in the text is the hope that there could be much more than we realize and much more that could be achieved if we can but succeed. So rather than being depressed further, I was constantly buoyed by his underlying themes of commonality in life's struggles, hopes and expectations.

An insightful, artistic interpretation of modern struggles. A look into what people really value and who or what gets left behind in the wake of striving to acquire more.