Tuesday, January 27, 2009

John Updike

John Updike Has Passed



Nicholas Delblanco, a friend of John Updike, read this poem of his on PBS News Hour tonight, the day he died, 1/27/09.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/remember/jan-june09/updike_01-27.html

"A Rescue"

"Today I wrote some words that will see print. Maybe they will last forever and that someone will read them there, ink making a light scratch on his mind or hers."

"I think back with greater satisfaction upon a yellow bird, a gold finch that had flown into the garden shed and could not get out, battering its wings on the deceptive light of the dusty, warped, shut window."

"Without much reflection for once, I stepped to where its panicked heart was making commotion, the flared wings drumming, and with clumsy, soft hands pinned it against a pane, held loosely cupped this agitated essence of the air, and through the open door released it like a self-flung ball to all that lovely, perishing outdoors."

A Poem by John Updike

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