{"id":138,"date":"2009-02-18T15:10:07","date_gmt":"2009-02-18T19:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/?p=138"},"modified":"2009-02-18T15:36:12","modified_gmt":"2009-02-18T19:36:12","slug":"link-wednesday-john-updike-the-obamas-poetry-slamming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/?p=138","title":{"rendered":"Link Wednesday &#8211; John Updike, the Obamas, poetry slamming"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" align=\"right\" src=\"images\/johnupdike1.jpg\" hspace=\"3\" vspace=\"2\" border=\"1\">Against all odds, the feature returns.  This will be playing a bit of catch-up, touching on some stories over the past couple of weeks.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>On January 27 John Updike passed away.  He was best known for his prose work (books like <em>Rabbit, Run<\/em>), but was also a well-regarded poet.  Much has been written about him, but <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/01\/28\/books\/28updike.html\" target=\"blank\"><u>this obituary<\/u><\/a> from the New York times was particularly well-written and thoughtful.<\/li>\n<li>The Times also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/01\/29\/opinion\/29updike.html?_r=1\" target=\"blank\"><u>printed a poem<\/u><\/a> from his forthcoming collection:<br \/>\n<blockquote><p>Requiem<\/p>\n<p>It came to me the other day:<br \/>\nWere I to die, no one would say,<br \/>\n\u201cOh, what a shame! So young, so full<br \/>\nOf promise \u2014 depths unplumbable!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Instead, a shrug and tearless eyes<br \/>\nWill greet my overdue demise;<br \/>\nThe wide response will be, I know,<br \/>\n\u201cI thought he died a while ago.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For life\u2019s a shabby subterfuge,<br \/>\nAnd death is real, and dark, and huge.<br \/>\nThe shock of it will register<br \/>\nNowhere but where it will occur.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 JOHN UPDIKE<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncliteraryfestival.org\/\" target=\"blank\"><u>North Carolina Literary Festival website<\/u><\/a> has finally been launched.  It will be hosted by UNC-Chapel Hill from September 10-13 2009.  More as it develops.<\/li>\n<li>A little <a href=\"http:\/\/flavorwire.com\/8658\/exclusive-michael-cirellis-poem-about-the-obamas-first-date\" target=\"blank\"><u>slam poetry<\/u><\/a> about Barack and Michelle Obama&#8217;s imagined first date.  Make of it as you will.  (link courtesy of nataline).<\/li>\n<li>Continuing with poetry slam, NPR features <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/templates\/story\/story.php?storyId=100619363&#038;ft=1&#038;f=1037\" target=\"blank\"><u>four poets and their writings about love<\/u><\/a>.  We here at potw.org may have missed Valentine&#8217;s Day by a few days, but you can still check it out.  The link includes text and readings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Against all odds, the feature returns. This will be playing a bit of catch-up, touching on some stories over the past couple of weeks. On January 27 John Updike passed away. He was best known for his prose work (books like Rabbit, Run), but was also a well-regarded poet. Much has been written about him, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-link-wednesday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions\/181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}