To give the mundane its beautiful view
John Updike died January 27th at 76. Middle class life, 2 Pulitzers for novels and engaging short stories. His article The Writer in Winter is, if not exuberantly pro-aging, respectful of its wisdom. Luckily, painters often do their best work during this time.
And a poem by Wendell M Tomlin, Jr that speaks of the day’s loss. Tomlin lives in a cabin near Lake Norman, in North Carolina.
In Memoriam
You knew our names and called them out as
clearing as a beloved’s.
You summoned our brightest beats from their hiding spaces;
you held them up to view
with untrimmed delight.
We will build a fire
in the center of the night
in the middle of a river
that you not mistake us
standing alone one by one
yearning toward the sound
of your voice, gone now
but still wrapped around us,
proof against the chill.
