Years of the electric ear!

The heavens crackling with report: far-flung,

            nearby, idle, inconsequential

The worst of bad news and the best of good

Seizures of opinion

The massive respirations of government and

            commerce

Sofa-sitters taken by kilocycle to the ball park,

            the concert hall, the scene of the crime

Dramas that let us dress the sets ourselves

Preachments and prizefights

The time at the tone, the weather will be, and

            now for a word

The coming of wars and freeways

Outcroppings of fragmented peace

Singing commercials and The Messiah.

On the 50^th anniversary of CBS for the television program, “Network at Fifty” (1978)