awk problem

[robert.e.o'brien]

This is embarrassingly simple, but I can't figure it out.  The awk book 
by the Aho, Kernigan, and Weinberger have info about piping in input
using the getline function.

When I try (see p. 62 of book which has "date" | getline d):

{ "date" | getline d 
print d }

I get:

awk: syntax error near line 1
awk: illegal statement near line 1

I've tried a number of variations on this.  What am I doing wrong?
Thanks in advance.

Bob O'Brien