"Let's Make a List" [by Tom Disch]

It's always a delight to stumble upon a new, previously uncollected poem by a master. Here is a poem Tom Disch wrote in December 2007.

Let's Make a List

The letter L
has cast her spell
on the whole English language.
The other letters willingly
anneal with her to form
all the words and things
we love the most: flowers
opening to the morning light,
the little birds fluttering
about the feeder, the swallows
along the river, ripplings,
dapplings, even loss.
L dies -- then lifts her head
and lives again. She smiles
in that special way she has
and it all becomes clear.
Look! there she is again

12/23/07

— Tom Disch

 Reprinted by the Estate of Thomas M. Disch c/o Writers' Representatives LLC, New York, NY 10011. All rights reserved.

Comments

[Sylva Portoian, MD]

Why L is a female ...?
Why not a Male...

This is the reason that people don't like poems...
I never blame them,
They want to read something that makes them thrilled...!
They don't want to confuse their minds with puzzles like letter L
Being Physician I like to poet simple stanzas...
That even the Brind...illiterate can hear without reading...
Trying to learn and rehearse...

Sylva Portoian, MD

[David Lehman]

Aesthetically the feminine is vastly superior in the naming of ocean liners or hurricane. But the category of "the Brind" is so novel that it canceled out my objection to the main point of the doctor's post. So thank you, Dr Portoian.