John Updike

Worst Poems	Our Thoughts
Burning Trash   At night—the light turned off, the filament Unburdened of its atom-eating charge, His wife asleep, her breathing dipping low To touch a swampy source—he thought of death. Her father's hilltop home allowed him time To sense the nothing standing like a sheet Of speckless glass behind his human future. He had two comforts he could see, just two. One was the cheerful fullness of most things: Plump stones and clouds, expectant pods, the soil Offering up pressure to his knees and hands. The other was burning the trash each day. He liked the heat, the imitation danger, And the way, as he tossed in used-up news, String, napkins, envelopes, and paper cups, Hypnotic tongues of order intervened.	Shaun - Not a big fan of this poem because to me it feels that if there is no structure to it or a rhytm, although John's poem is mostly story based instead of just a feeling or theory it still seems sluggish to me and very "bouncy".
Flight to Limbo (First Stanza) The line didn’t move, though there were not many people in it. In a half-hearted light the lone agent dealt patiently, noiselessly, endlessly with a large dazed family ranging from twin toddlers in strollers to an old lady in a bent wheelchair. Their baggage was all in cardboard boxes. The plane was delayed, the rumor went through the line. We shrugged, in our hopeless overcoats. Aviation had never seemed a very natural idea.	Charlene - This poem is my least favorite because it’s about flying, and I am scared of flying.  I hate the airports because they are to busy.  I always end up at the end of the terminals and have to walk so far to where I need to catch my flight.  When you are in an airplane, you are trapped in this little spot with no where to go.
Venetian Candy (First stanza) How long will our bewildered heirs marooned in possessions not theirs puzzle at disposing of these three cunning feignings of hard candy in glass— the striped little pillowlike mock-sweets, the flared end-twists as of transparent paper?	Vong-  This poem did not have any rhyme or rhythm.  This poem could have definately used some rhyming because Updike is talking about the same thing most of the time.  He should have rhymed candy names together.  This would have made the poem a lot more enjoyable for everyone because the title gives the whole poem a nice tone to it.  When the reader does start reading the poem and finds out that the title set a whole different tone than what the poem says the reader would be annoyed.  I felt this way, and that's why this made the worst poem on my list.