Brad Leithauser: Lettered Creatures

[Liam]

Lettered Creatures
Leithauser & Leithauser

We're searching for some sign,
Some hint, some fresh suggestion--
(We're searching for life's meaning--nothing less.)
The answer will come easily, we guess,
Once we locate the question.

This, indeed, is a strange creature. A book of light nonsense verse unfolding like an alphabetical fan, a bestiary and a zodiac rolled into one; written by one brother and sumptuously illustrated by another; and dedicated, in turn, to two other brothers (Lance and Neil).

Brad, of course, is a well-known poet here in the U.S. and a recipient of many literary awards. Darlington's Fall (2002), his novel in verse about the famous English biologist and eugenicist, is a breathtaking masterpiece.

Lettered Creatures is extremely unusual in style and execution--particularly for Brad Leithauser--who prefers to deal, for the most part, with more serious themes. His customary humor, however, is evident throughout, earning him a comparison with Marianne Moore and Stephen Sondheim.

There are 28 poems in total: one for each of the 26 letters of the English alphabet, plus a prologue and an epilogue. Although the book is unpaginated and there is no table of content, the full list of poems looks something like this:

Alphabets: A Greeting
A: Anteater
B: Beaver
C: Crabs
D: Damselfly and Dragonfly
E: Emu
F: Fly
G: Gorillas
H: Heron
I: Iguanas
J: Joey (a baby kangaroo)
K: King Cobras
L: Lionfish
M: Mantis
N: Nightingale
O: Octopi
P: Pangolin
Q: Q & A (with a porcupine)
R: Ruminant (in this case, camel)
S: Spiders
T: Turtle
U: Unicornfish
V: Vampire Bats
W: Wasps
X: Xs (as in, eXtinct animals)
Y: Yaks
Z: Zedonk (no idea what this is)
Zoodiac: A Farewell

Damselfly and Dragonfly is my favorite piece in the collection, perhaps even my favorite poem from Leithauser. Simple, lucidly worded and unadorned, it is nevertheless a work of much imaginative power--humorous, amusing, playful and beautifully succinct:

Though fresh as paint, littered with lights,
This pair is old, old as the dinosaurs;
They buzzed our steaming, teeming shores
When draggling monster-lizards ruled the world...
As old as those and older still:
Ancient as days when clanking knights
Rescued their damsels from the curled
Dragon recluded in the caverned hill.

Other favorites include Beaver, Iguanas, Ruminant, Turtle and Unicornfish.

Enjoy.

[Liam]

A Beaver


Perhaps because my kind is reared in mud
And wears a silly, servile grin
The other creatures show me no respect.
Yet I'm earth's leading landscape architect...
They see me differently, it seems,
Only when my expansive plans begin
To rise: putting my smile to work, I flood
Their high-born habitations with my dreams.

[Liam]

Iguanas


Under the yellow sun, up out of the blue sea,
Red flames ascended, and fell back.
The flames returned, repeatedly.
The lava hardened, and turned black...
And, as years came and went, grew harder still
And rougher-textured, rucked and torn,
Knobbled and cragged and veined, until
It was more stone than stone, and we were born.

[Liam]

Ruminant


In fragrant, faraway oases, where
Male camels bent on company repair
For racy chat, it sometimes happens someone can't
Recall the comely creature who
They're all discussing. "But--what sort is she?" he'll say.
And then you'll hear the phrase that will transplant
You to some grimy diner, miles and worlds away:
"One lump or two?" he asks. "One lump or two?"

[Liam]

Turtle


Homebodies? Well, we won't leave home
Without our home--and yet our shell is more
Than shelter from the elements: it's both our ground-
Floor and the vaulted dome
Beneath which is concealed/revealed
The drama of our sex. Our shell is shield
From tooth and claw; and storehouse for
Our food reserves; and, at the close, burial mound.

[Liam]

Striped-Face Unicornfish


Most children learn, regretfully,
There never was an age when unicorns
Grazed the green swales and ridges of the earth.
But things are different in the sea,
Where fluid, fabled dreams are given birth
And unicornfish become reality...
Though they exhibit this peculiarity:
Some have no horns.

[john h]

Thanks for putting up the poems, Liam. They're great. I've been looking for Leithauser's "Darlington's Fall" in used book stores for ages but never seem to find it. I suppose I should just break down and order it.