Ad Alpha: An Address to the Alphabet

A

You are the first

sound that we properly learn

to say

you are the great connector

a bridge

between you and they

you are the honest alpha

soft and unmale

a letter

to define all letters by

a beginning

a start

an A

B

You follow

sometimes you precede

bouncing along

from vowel to vowel

you multiply our meaning

you are elastic

you can sting

your percussive note

soft but warns

of consonants to come

you can be a real

B

C

Here it comes

the consonant of consonants

a real conniseur

you kick the jelly out of your brother

and let your amigo wail

you can call a cab

you can break backs

you could say you were a violent little fucker

but your second face

also soft

like lace chiffon

a joyous occasion or celebration

you can have class

you are chic

you can be full of grace

and charm

you must be used carefully

you are a chancy

C

D

you dawn

and bring us deeper into doubt

bringing a sonorous note

to the dark cave

the basic shadows cast by your existing

brothers

you are the dread harbinger

you are the doom

you are the dead

you are the damned drums of a brand new gravity

with your can do and your dockers

and your dames

you undermine the naive games of but three letters

your doldrums drag them grasping

for another sound

to our dread

D

E

You get here excited

as any other letter could be

the others enjoy you

even D

no letter could really be itself without you

it couldn't be said out loud

(except for O who was very lonely)

you bring joy and energy to almost

everything

we have you to thank for evil

and for effluence

however

you are let off almost effortlessly

you can be especially entertaining

comedy and tragedy

in waiting

and ecstasy was named in honour after you an

E

F

For fate's divine reasons

you were called to fish

for the other letters

where they were hooked you would change them

muffle them

you would emphasize them also

as you funnelled the sound

you could make things funny

or offensive

you could differentiate

you could feel sound

you could offer elegance of some fashion

you could F and blind

you were an intensifier mainly

with a softer landing

than anything seen

so far so

F

G

good. You give us the grace

to gaggle and gargle

to appreciate geese

amongst your brothers and sisters you are

the grease

getting us from home to don’t pass go

and in going you take the pace

along

you are the gong that heralds gear shifts

you are the letter that grifts and grafts

you put the gut into laughter

you get us gradually

by degrees

you are the one that gleams

you are the deep groan

you are the girl for me

you gnome

you glyph

you G

H

Ah hark at you. You herald home

drawing us to a full stop as we

exhale upon your pronunciation

You hold up chains

thorough and hair-raising harrowing

in thought

chasing cheap and unreachable

chops and hocks of ham

heathen among others

a harem a hen

sometimes you are laughable

chased as a charlatan

you hearken however to heaven

you make hay while He shines

you are the harlot’s hair

you are the chic chair

you are the chippings

you change

you make the others shake

but still you share

you are the holding cell

you put the horror

in hell

you retreat into your shell

you are hard to hold

you are the white noise

you are a hope

a breath

an H

I

in you come. Ice-cool and indispensable

inane in a way but inconceivably

important.

You give the game its wins

you bring the big artillery in. Incidental at times

but never far behind

You bring the sing song swift silence of the wind

to otherwise ground bound words

You put the intrigue in sin

you let the light in

and you are one of the quietest brightest iterations

out there. You slip and slide in between

you grin. You make the others green

with your irresistibility

You are in built

you were sent from on high

you are the image

you are the sleigh in the sky

you are a mirror

you share my name

identical to my Will

you are you and

I am

I

J

Joker in the pack

you drop like a bungee

into the conversation. Jinxing like Jack

you jump and plunge us

in with the jellyfish

you can be jolly

as in jelly

but rarely do you gel with others

Your job is a difficult one

to juggle

and generate gestating japes

to jog and jar us along

you are the effort

the juice

you bring justice to the jungle

you jolt away

you judge you jury

you J

K

Kryptonite

kulture brought to us by Vikings

and scarred into the islands of Skomer

Skockholm and the seaside Sketty

Foreigner in our midst

still you offer a kick

a stark hammer

a sharp pick

with a skittish aspect at times like a skate in the park

the finality of dark

the seriousness of a walk

you are the strength in stalk

without you

no talk

you attacked and made your play

you are here to stay

amongst pork strips you are a steak

you are a welcome freak

you knave

you know

you’re the percussive note

the crack in OK

you are the sound we like

you’re luck

you are the depth in lake

you keep us awake to

the marks

we lead astray

you are the one for me you are

special

you are the

K

L

Alive and languorous you leave us

longing for more the leaf-like licks of a long

blight bleeding softly below the low lunar lighting

You reveal love between the letters

long let it live

aloft with the plumage of falcons and butterflies

you lift and plunge with the effortlessness

of a liberal delusion. You are long

and elastic

linking the lines and influences on our loquacity

wriggling and flexing

you are the lingerie around the concept lust

you are the longing that leads all of us

you claim to the eternal in hell

and the everlasting

you are the lump in my throat

you are the late and the last

you are clearly a girl

you twirl

you tell

You L

M

Manly you stand. Massive. Without motion

except the rumble in the mumble

when you move mountains

and make the emerging marketplaces tumble

in the postmodern emergence of

late stage capitalism

You make mock of the ease of the others

to please. You make a mark. You bark

things into pause. You make the

murmur of agreement

in the midst of a maelstrom of competing sounds

you are the mainstay of melodic music

You are the yum in ham

the comfort of REM

you make the men march as one

you are moderate and mindful

and mad

You are the middle ground

the meridian the median

the mode

the mistake in miracle

you are the mum

the Mamgu

a matriarch

an M

N

Nowhere would we be without you.

No negative, nought, or no.

Never could we converse by night

about the unknowable

or make the native need for nets seem necessary

for sustenance and nutrition.

You are the nuts the language nibbles on

you are the nurse from nowhere

you tell us what not to do

you declare what’s new

You are antithesis

and synthesis

you are the inner knowledge of the noumenon

that invention of Kant’s

No-one goes

anywhere you haven’t already been

You remain to be seen

even in saying

you are the near silent gem

the listening

indeterminate

N.

O

Often the centre of the whole. Soft and open

all around the earth you are solid

round like zero and as shocked

to be the content of nothing

No-one escapes your original hope to host

honest and occult discussion

and you host every occasion

You appear somewhere

often in what we sow

You are the hole in all conversation

you give us pause

you open locks and doors

like a skeleton key

to a mahogany closet

you are ultimately all we know

in that we know nothing

but we know you

as our tongs flop floorwards

you are moving forwards

with your stoned glow

my way

my home

my ecstasy in the corridors of love

my spouse

my O

P

Present and surprising as a prank

you peel the skin back

you pop party poppers and balloons

you pour contempt on the poor

you are percussive and proud

you pound the pavement

you put the peril in policeman

you perform

Where ever you are placed you give us pause

before your explosive outburst

but surprisingly compassionate

as in orphan.

Perhaps you are without parent

person or placeholder

You stand up

admirably

And you will always have a place in the alphabet

only the consonants compete

for your peerless prize

You are the liquid in me

and priceless

lost deep in the prairie

you pillar you

P

Q

Curious and quizzical

the scourge of scrabble

Rare and exotic as a giant squid

Quicker and more quixotic

than a K

though they have much in common

Quaint on occasion

Queasy under certain conditions

form an orderly one

if you would gain admission

In application you are one of the few

we treat with care

and ignore at our peril

Quarrels will often ensue

at the speed of quarks

and prolonged as quasars

long let you go on doing what you do

unloved unrequited

Q

R

Unafraid of resistance

or friction you roll

off the tongue as sharp as any razor can

you revive and revitalize

you run

unafraid as well to retreat or rout

to recount and recover

the rhyme and the reason

you bring the drones out

to frighten another day

or way of saying it

you rumble

over mountain ranges

and trickle through streams

without you it would not be possible

to hear the children’s screams

nor perceive the riot

of colour and the prettiness of flowers

you drag us through the hours

of utterance and rubbish

you rent the curtain

you reappear with a flourish

you disappear and then there you are

like a magic carpet

you coily rope

you star

you R

S

Safe as a nest of snakes

at the centre of the system

you start so many sentences

despite being percussive

still you are soft

and slither your way to the fist and last

of so many of your brothers

and sisters’ place

in the tomes and tablets

since ancient times

You are often latest to arrive

a guest

elusive as a mist but perceptible

as a surprise blast

when you choose

you wrap yourself around other sounds

in fits and starts or smooth

as a silky shroud

Your warning signal is a menacing hiss

your welcome a passionate kiss

you above all we would miss

you are possibly the best

despite the shape of your mess

you are a beast and a saint

certainty and a guess

you are slick and

always around

save me a space in the sky

when you ascend

from maliceto bliss

make me a funny face

my squiggle and scribble/ my sexy

S

T

More contempt than sultriness attaches to you

You tear the air when you trumpet

yourself and announce your tips

to trip up the pantheon

Only in combination with others

begrudgingly given

softens

your tough exterior

and is tantamount to treason in your terrible mind.

You stand for tyranny and terror

Your note denotes an error

Tch people say

with all the contempt that you can muster

But

as is the case with you all we could not chat at all

without your singular contribution

And especially in out country

it is you we drink

and knock you back all day long.

No wonder you tremble

no wonder you resent

yourself

in that you resemble yourself and yourself alone

you are the tremendous

the terminal

T

U

Underneath the radar you come

like a submarine

another unbegrudgingly open vowel

less sonorous than O

but cruising deeper than I

you stand for the unknowable also

the same as me

but in a different body

You are the undercurrent informing

unassumedly

so many thoroughly essential

items of utility in an unexpected

downpour of letters

like an umbrella

at a barbecue

You are the unsung hero the underdog

a U

V

The Roman root of so many letters

like a Vesuvius to language’s Pomeii

You stand for conflict

and also love

you are the heart and start of Venus

sometimes indistinguishable

to the ear from your cousin F

it was not always so

confusing the near deaf

you mark the Valentine for me

you are dear

violent and gentle

as all things be

you are the mate of the fox

and power the centre of the baby hare

You are a sight to see

whether Vulcan bomber

or species in all their varieties

essence of values

victorious

V

W

You straddle your space like a sewn up wound

runic and druidic

but northern on the whole. The mark of Wotan

we could not be without you

least of all on Wednesdays.

There would be no more world

or words to express it in

The webs that we weave would be far less

intricate. Flipped over M

you are sonorous too a deep note of uncertainty

attaches itself to you

And where would we be without

the means to know you?

Whatever whoever wherever and whenever

we come looking for you

You arrive whistling or sometimes

whooping like the wind

There is nowhere we would have to go

before you show

ancient and honourable

with deep patience for the wild and the wicked

in man. You are the one we want

you are the one we go to.

You are the here and now

you are more than me

you are W

X

You exceed our expectations

time and again

Often you denote something extraneous

something extra something that was.

Traditionally you mark the spot

or the indeterminate

such precision and such versatility

united as one where the two strokes cross.

Name of X rays and the shorthand

for ecstasy

You take the place of two letters in fax

Latin for ten you regulate numerals

mathematics and algebraic

equations

Expert and exemplary you exhibit the sign

warding off danger

expeller of sin

Most commonly used sigil on expressives

and flags

You have got to be up there with the best

You are the simplest

you show us what’s wrong

and put the mystery in sex

you are the staves

crossed

you are original X.

Y

You are the original question

first and last to be answered

wherever you go inquiry is sure to follow

You are the cause of all causes

you could baffle the almighty

for you can’t be dismissed

on reaching the desired destination

chicanery of the Deists.

And demanding more than probability

You are the end of so many

words and a treat

to loquacity

You are the recourse of the upset

suspicious and curious

You are the terror of parents and delight

of our infancy

You put the limits on the earth and the sky

Probing and well-versed in delicacy

Science has you to thank

as much as all of philosophy

You stand alone among letters

you sound like the intellectual’s heart’s

driving majesty

You lay the ground for all truths and all lies

you are phonetically holy to all

that calls itself enquiry

You are yourself

You are Y

Z

Cousin of S with the buzz of the fly

onomatopoeic mainly

but desirous to the verb

to scrutinize is to realize

that its uses are many

from Zebra watching

to zealotry

And to dream on it is to doze

associated with laziness

a’buzzing in bed

you are zany on occasion but mark the end

of the road

to a decelerating chicane

You are the terminus

you are Z