Poetry Founded in 1912 by Harriet Monroe
Home
Magazine
Web Exclusive
Letters
Books
About


Featured Poem
Rule


Tom Disch has a new collection of poetry criticism, The Castle of Perseverance: Job Opportunities in Contemporary Poetry, forthcoming from the University of Michigan Press.

Email a friend >>
Printable version >>
Ode to a Blizzard
by Tom Disch

O! wonderful for weight and whiteness!
    Ideolog whose absolutes
       Are always proven right
           By white and then
       More white and white again,
     Winning the same argument year
After year by making the opposition
           Disappear!

O! dear miniature of infinity with no
    End in sight and no snow-
       Flake exactly like
           Another, all
       A little different no
     Matter how many may fall,
Just like our own DNA or the human face
           Eternal!

O! still keep covering the street
     And sidewalks, cemeteries, even
         Our twice-shoveled drive,
            And all that is alive,
         With geometries that sleet
      Will freeze into Death's
Impromptu vision of a heaven
           Wholly white!

For we know who your sponsor is, whose will
      You so immensely serve,
          Whose chill is more severe
              Than any here.
          Though his name may be unspoken,
      His commandments are unbroken,
And every monument that you erect
             Belongs to him!

 
Current Issue
Past Issues
Historical Index
Past Issues

 SEARCH
 
 

 Copyright © The Poetry Foundation    Privacy Policy/Terms of Use    Contact