TWENTY-SIX LETTERS
Lyrics published in: REFLECTIONS: POEMS, LYRICS, AND STORIES
Listen to TWENTY-SIX LETTERS
Words by Judith Weinshall Liberman
Music by Stephen Feig
Copyright © 2023 by Judith Weinshall Liberman

When I hear a poem recited,
Or if I read it on a page,
And when I listen to a lyric
Performed in song upon the stage,

When I read great books that matter,
Or articles that me inform,
And when I listen to a lecture
That will perhaps my life transform,

When my family speaks to me
In loving tones that I will cherish,
Or when a friend addresses me
In words I will forever relish,

Then for a moment I stop and think
That all these words I heard or read,
And all their various combinations
In sentences and pages spread,

Are made of nothing more than letters –
Just twenty-six to be precise –
That our familiar English language
Brought down to us as a device

For us to form such words and more,
Like sentences and stanzas, too
And paragraphs and choruses
With verses bright and sometimes blue.

Just twenty-six of those great tools
Allow us to express our thought,
Communicate our feelings plus
Inform us what this life has taught.