Find the lead, he told me, and everything else will fall in place.
I went on a tour of the New York Times and was lead
into a room with giant black presses,
paper strewn everywhere with headlines and captions
and rows of wooden, green boards.
The boards are used to place tabloid-sized pages
on to lay out the pages of the Times.
It's an old-fashioned, frustrating process
of cutting and pasting,
it requires skill, patience and practice.
The boards will soon be gone and replaced
with a newer, more efficient process
which involves satellites and other such gadgets.

Find the lead, he told me, and everything else will fall into place.
The Times is certainly on the cutting edge and
although I am a part of the new, technology-crazed
publishing world, I can't help but feel remorse
for what will be left behind.
Many newspapers have to still cut and paste
and can't (or don't want to) go on the Web.

And old-style reporter, he is cynical and loud-mouthed
but also charismatic and selfless.
He thinks nothing of going out in the middle of
a torrential rain stom to get some greek soup for a friend.
He is friendly but authorative,
outgoing but reserved
and he frequently laughs and scowls
in the same conversation.
He's too saavy to be left behind,
but too many others will.

Find the lead, he told me, and everything else will follow.
Not to worry, I will because you never know
what the future has in store for us.

Poetry Magazine