May 2021
Bio Note: I'm a retired English Professor spending my time writing, taking the occasional photograph,
trying to follow the Dharma. My poetry collections Time is Not a River and Morning Calm are both
available on Amazon. My manuscript A Matter of Timing won the 2020 Poetry Society of Texas’ Catherine Case
Lubbe Manuscript Contest (publication: Summer 2021).
Author's Note: Arthur Godfrey was a radio and TV host who had his own variety show from 1948-1959. Known for his easy-going manner, he discovered many new talents, but demanded absolute loyalty. After he famously fired singer Julius LaRosa on live television, his popularity declined.
Author's Note: Arthur Godfrey was a radio and TV host who had his own variety show from 1948-1959. Known for his easy-going manner, he discovered many new talents, but demanded absolute loyalty. After he famously fired singer Julius LaRosa on live television, his popularity declined.
The Arthur Godfrey Show
When I was 10 years old,
my mother dropped me off
at my grandparents’ house,
so she could go into Manhattan
for a taping of a television show.
At the studio in NY,
Arthur Godfrey opened the hour
singing and playing the ukulele,
then strolled out into the audience
to say hello and tell a few jokes
when he spotted my mother
sitting with her friends,
telling everyone she looked
just like Gina Lollobrigida
and sat on her lap
before the cut to commercials.
All of which we missed
back in the apartment,
getting the time wrong,
instead watching an episode
of As the World Turns,
with its opening credits
and revolving globe—
when a new female character,
sure to break hearts and deceive
her husband was introduced.
In the early 60’s,
what could be more
exciting than a woman
with a cheating heart
coming into town
to keep the world spinning,
two years before Marilyn
sang Happy Birthday
in a flesh-colored dress.
©2021 Michael Minassian
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the
author (email address above) to tell her or him. You might say what it is about the poem that moves you. Writing to the author is what builds the community at Verse Virtual.
It is very important. -JL