The artful Updike circa 1960. Photograph: HO/Reuters
It came to me the other day:
Were I to die, no one would say,
“Oh, what a shame! So young, so full
Of promise — depths unplumbable!”
Instead, a shrug and tearless eyes
Will greet my overdue demise;
The wide response will be, I know,
“I thought he died a while ago.”
For life’s a shabby subterfuge,
And death is real, and dark, and huge.
The shock of it will register
Nowhere but where it will occur.
— JOHN UPDIKE
This poem is taken from John Updike’s forthcoming collection, “Endpoint and Other Poems.”
Christopher Lydon’s “Open Source” podcast with Updike from 12/04/2000
NPR’s Fresh Air Tribute to Updike:
Economist’s article about Updike
The Curious Autodidact 
the loss of John Updike makes me wonder if the literary world is being replenished at the same rate that it’s losing such great writers
Comment by coffee — January 30, 2009 @ 11:29 am |