Bruce Lansky became interested in poetry after his mother, a librarian, frequently read poems to him as a child. He began writing his own poems in 1991. One of his poems, titled "Turn Off the TV!" describes his parents getting upset with him for watching too much television and trying to get him to turn it off, though his father watches even more TV than him.

3. Well, this story is about how Bruce Lansky came to be a
poet. Bruce's mother was a librarian and LOVED poetry!
She would always read poems to him . After awhile he
decided he wanted to write poems . The year he started
writing poems was 1991.

5. Turn Off the TV!
Turn Off the TV!
By Bruce Lansky b. 1941
My father gets quite mad at me;
my mother gets upset—
when they catch me watching
our new television set.
My father yells, “Turn that thing off!”
Mom says, “It’s time to study.”
I’d rather watch my favorite TV show
with my best buddy.
I sneak down after homework
and turn the set on low.
But when she sees me watching it,
my mother yells out, “No!”
Dad says, “If you don’t turn it off,
I’ll hang it from a tree!”
I rather doubt he’ll do it.
‘Cause he watches more than me.
He watches sports all weekend,
And weekday evenings too,
While munching chips and pretzels-
The room looks like a zoo.
So if he ever got the nerve
To hang it from a tree,
He’d spend a lot of time up there-
Watching it with me.