January by John Updike

Our son moved back to Ipswich, Massachusetts last spring. It’s his first January there though he spent his early years in our home just around the corner from his “new” First Period home. We lived on East Street across the street from the home of John Updike who penned this poem describing Ipswich in January in the early 1960’s.

The days are short,
The sun a spark
Hung thin between
The dark and dark.

Fat snowy footsteps
Track the floor.
Milk bottles burst
Outside the door.

The river is
A frozen place
Held still beneath
The trees of lace.

The sky is low.
The wind is gray.
The radiator
Purrs all day.

—A Child’s Calendar, First Edition (1965)