(no subject)
I never read John Updike, and maybe I should, since he's one of those towering, modern literary figures whom everyone respects. Listening to A Prairie Home Companion tonight, Garrison Keillor described Updike as a spiritual descendant of people such as Dickens, whose body of work is so immense that you'll never finish it, and if you do, you'll want to revisit those you've read them. A poem of Updike's was read:
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 tears confused with their diamond earrings,
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.
It's optimistic, affirming, a little jingoistic. It made me feel good about myself. But the title. For all the energy you spend on being yourself, being unique, it may be all for naught. Barryploegel.com will never be accused of having too little information about Barry Ploegel.
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 tears confused with their diamond earrings,
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.
It's optimistic, affirming, a little jingoistic. It made me feel good about myself. But the title. For all the energy you spend on being yourself, being unique, it may be all for naught. Barryploegel.com will never be accused of having too little information about Barry Ploegel.