John Updike

[b0b]

Requiem

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.

In sad remembrance.

[Steve Alcott]

Yes indeed.

[David L. Donald]

Any one who got the respect of word mavens,
school teachers, and Garrison Keillor,
and who's name was a house hold word
deserves a good mention here.

No doubt 'Rabbit' will run from his angst
into a long good remembrance.

Garrison Keillor:

"Be like Updike, gracious and attentive."

"...I think of John Updike, who illuminated private lives
and wrote so lovingly of the world,
who called snowfall "an immense whispering"
and compared a brilliant snowy day to
overdeveloped film."

Works for me.