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Ode to a Blizzard

By Tom Disch 1940–2008 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!

Source: Poetry (December 2001).

Biography

A pioneering author of speculative fiction, Tom Disch was also a noted poet, librettist, children’s author, essayist, theater critic, writer of historical novels, and author of computer-interactive fiction. Born in Iowa in 1940, Disch grew up in Minnesota and moved to New York City in the late 1950s. He attended both Cooper University and New York University, but did not graduate from either institution. During his time in New . . .

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