John Peter Beck

Raised in a milltown on Lake Michigan in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, John Peter Beck is a recently retired professor in the labor education program at Michigan State University where he still co-directs a program that focuses on labor history and the culture of the workplace, Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives. His poetry has been published in a number of journals including The Seattle Review, Another Chicago Magazine, The Louisville Review and Passages North among others.  

“The Anniversary,” “The Blind Date,” and “A Table for One, Please”

Table Three/Two Diners

Chicken Lo Mein
Garlic Chicken (no mushroom)

The Husband

It wasn’t this restaurant,
another Chinese place
in a town hundreds

“The Time of Our Lives,” “The Geography of Absence,” and “Conundrum”

We live
in the future,

but only
for a moment.

“The Flight Attendant,” “The Librarian,” and “The Lighthouse Keeper”

Stay in your seats
and remain calm.

I am sure St. Bona of Pisa
said the same things afloat
when leading crusaders
to the Promised Land.
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