N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 0
RAINBOW
by John Updike
Hear John Updike read this poem (in RealAudio).(For help, see a note about the audio.)
Go to:
An Audible Anthology
Poetry Pages
twenty minutes of inky wet, and then,
on the rinsed atmosphere's curved edge,
struck by the re-emergent sun
in impermanent and glorious coinage,
mint-fresh from infra-violet to ultra-red,
gigantic, ethereal, rooted in the sea
seen through it, dying a bell-buoy green,
it has appeared. And when it fades, today,
it leaves behind on the bay's flat glaze
a strange confetti of itself, bright dots
of pure, rekindled color, neon-clear.
What are we seeing? Lobster-pot markers,
speckling the brine with polychrome.
John Updike is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of nineteen novels. His latest work, Licks of Love: Short Stories and a Sequel, "Rabbit Remembered," will be published this month.
All material copyright © 2000 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |