………….
Letter l as in
Reliable, Indomitable, Chivalrous
……… For Loraine Lins
It’s hard not to like
……………………… l. Life
………….. Love. Luck. It’ so full
of lofty ideals. A natural born leader
………………………of all the laggard………….
………….. vowels, lugubrious u,
ever loitering e. loopy o.
………………………Think, l seems to say,
………….. of all you can accomplish
if you work at it as diligently
……………………….as an adverb.
………….. It latches on
to an adjective and sweetly
……………………….softly, almost indiscernibly,
………….. persuades it to
spread its goodwill to the rest
………………………of the sentence.
………….. Lambent. Luminous.
Lucent. What pleasure there is
……………………….in working certain words
………….. into sentences. l. changes
everything. Unflinching—
……………………….ly, unstintingly, it labors,
………….. Let the earth
put forth vegetation, plants
……………………….yielding seed, and fruit trees
…………… fruit in which is their seed.
That’s not just the Lord
………………………talking. That’s
………….. language. Let there be . . .
How lovely it feels
……………………….to tuck the tongue
………….. against the teeth
and let the lungs do the rest.
by Christopher Bursk
from The First Inhabitants of Arcadia
University of Arkansas Press, 2006