Andrew Price
Projects, GOOD
John Updike, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and poet, died today of cancer. Please share any Updike reading recommendations in the comments for those of us who aren't as familiar with his oeuvre as we'd like.In the meantime, here's a pretty touching poem of his on the subject of death, below.
"Perfection Wasted"
And another regrettable thing about death
is the ceasing of your own brand of magic,
which took a whole life to develop and market-
the quips, the witticisms, the slant
adjusted to a few, those loved ones nearest
the lip of the stage, their soft faces blanched
in the footlight glow, their laughter close to tears,
their warm pooled breath in and out with your heartbeat,
their response and your performance twinned.
The jokes over the phone. The memories packed
in the rapid-access file. The whole act.
Who will do it again? That's it: no one;
imitators and descendants aren't the same.
-John Updike
Composed 1/24/90
Collected Poems 1953-1993 (Knopf, 1993, p. 231)
