To my personal chagrin, I’ve never read much by John Updike; I think once or twice at school we were required to read a paragraph here or there, but I never got into reading his prose, mainly because life has been crammed with such stories that I haven’t yet had time. The poetry of Mr. Updike, though — I’ve read some of that, and with its economy of words, poignancy and ephemeral beauty. This is my very favorite.
Religious Consolation
– by John Updike
One size fits all. The shape or coloration
of the god or high heaven matters less
than that there is one, somehow, somewhere, hearing
the hasty prayer and chalking up the mite
the widow brings to the temple. A child
alone with horrid verities cries out
for there to be a limit, a warm wall
whose stones give back an answer, however faint.
Strange, the extravagance of it—who needs
those eighteen-armed black Kalis, those musty saints
whose bones and bleeding wounds appall good taste,
those joss sticks, houris, gilded Buddhas, books
Moroni etched in tedious detail?
We do; we need more worlds. This one will fail.
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. May you find a world that provides you warm walls, limits, answers — what it is that you need.
Poetry Friday is being hosted by the holly and the ivy.
Hmmm…the extravagance of religion when what we really need it a new world…is that an environmental message? I think I’ll take it as one!
I love that poem too. And I haven’t read anywhere near enough John Updike myself, but I do remember liking what I read and liking the poetry in it especially. I remember one of his short stories about a boy looking at a dead pigeon, marveling in the beauty of its neck feathers — sure that if even such a small thing as a pigeon were so beautifully designed, there must be order in the universe.
Janet: Somehow I like his poems that wonder/wander into otherworldly realms the best.
Cloudscome: I picture a warm wall on a spring day — something to lean against, out of the breeze that is still the tiniest bit too cool… tilting up the face, leaning, soaking up the sun… I could deal with a “world” like that.
Jules: I’d read that one — it stopped me, it did. Being five thousand miles away from my nephew, I knew exactly what he was saying — they change a little even if you see them every day…
Wow.
Someone else (I cannot remember WHO, for the life of me) pointed this out to me recently. I love it: http://poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=30077
Updike and words: a happy marriage. Oh, he had a way.
Love the last line. Seems like a lot of people, religious or not, feel like they “need more worlds.”
Parker P
“a warm wall” – that sounds so comforting. Is it because we are still stuck in winter and the wind howls so?
Thoughtful and thought provoking poem!
OH wow. This IS beautiful. So, so true. Thanks so much!
We do need more worlds. I love Updike’s poem about Easter, too.
Mm. Quite striking.