Instead, as time goes by, there’s added to each “name”
those numbers institutions need, numbers for everything, bank accounts, telephones, insurances, credit cards, zipcodes, licenses, permits; and every institution has a file on you, with a number, not a name.
Well, I am NOT a card, nor you – my reader, so I name you
(whoever you may be) Reader-of-Poems, Student of Questions;
Me? for the now, I am the Questioner. Later, perhaps, shall I become
the Teller-of-Stories? The Namer-of-Things?
What is a name? Why is it some people fit their names
While others always jar upon the mind?
Why does it seem some people, once you know their names, appear
static, still, unchanging, unmoving,
while others’ names unfold like flowers an ever changing, growing name, reflecting changes in the owner?
Some peoples give new names to friends,
as they grow and change; those names reflect
their now; and will change again with time. Such riches could be ours!
What’s in a name? Or in the way it’s said? names too often just seem meaningless, labels, titles to hang on people – to distinguish
the otherwise undifferentiated. Over time, too, names lose meaning, –
else gain some quality from their mythical pasts) – like Merlin –
Myrddhin to some – speaks of some mystery
While Pandora’s thought inquisitive, dangerously so, some say ?
but in other form, as Eve, is still known as mother to us all.
And what magical spell is cast
when you speak a name with good-will, or even with love?
And why does the use of a name possession imply in some way, the user claiming part ownership of the named one;
Now for me, there is one, one single name,
that means so many things, the list
is almost endless: dearest friend,
wife, lover, sister, mother, child,
guide and mentor, teacher; student;
but these are just the outward forms –
accepted frames of reference – inside
the names are longer yet, more complex,
Cascade, Shimmering Thunder – Waterfall,
playful child and playmate, dancing girl,
Moral-Guardian, Giver-of-Heart’s-Ease,
Provider-of-Soul-Balm – are just a few, to start.
Could all these things exist
Within two syllables?
Neill Edwards
