db commands elicit no response

I must be doing something stupid but I can't figure it out.

**I logged into our database server (8.4.17) and did the following:
psql template1 **to get in
CREATE DATABASE planning_services **database created
**logged out of template1
psql planning_services **now in planing_services database with prompt
planning_services(#

create table policies (
"id" serial primary key,
"description" varchar(100)
;

there is no response from the database server except return to the command prompt
planning_services(#

all subsequest commands simply return me to the prompt:
planning_services(#

\d reports No relations found

What am I missing? Why can't I successfully issue commands from within planning_services?

Thanks in advance for any help. --Fred

Fred Parkinson
Application Programmer
Association of Bay Area Governments
510-464-7931