the common evening primrose: oenothera biennis
or
a writing collective
to:
What is in titles
other than what everyone
has built into their names?
I am scared of my title
that it is an ill fit
or that I fit it poorly
that is, too poor to fit
What is in names?
surely not the intention
of the one who named
but the person who sticks
their head in behind it
signs it on the document
and “love,” ‘s it on a letter
so often hypocrite
Even stranger, assuming
a position ill-defined
given a name like all else
while acting to re-define.
I know the world
has small language
defining who we became
in that short time
before you left, our name
left ambiguous, a present
tense verb of some kind
Both silly and strange
in mind, maybe stupid
just an effort to not be
the same as those who built
the names up ‘fore we arrived
on the now corrupted scene
the titles dragged
in the wreckage and clichés
it is time to recreate
you and me, just names
running blind,
without an easy sign
— for all to see —
to carry blazing
on our chests.
And yet…
I want these talks
to echo, to resound
to glad fathers
and our brothers,
mothers most of all
They ought smile
like I smile
across the wires
And so…
you must come as mine
and me as yours
your, my someone
our, some other
a choice, or conclusion
of good accidents
strewn over time
for a purpose
I couldn’t create
despite a wanting to
1 Comment
February 16, 2008 at 7:31 pm
That was really quite good. Your words remind me of E.E. Cummings – fragmented – except better, because the message is coherent.
Forgive my stupid screen name; you see, I’m cautious on the Internet.
The truest meaning of word lies somewhere in the roots of Indo-European, I think; the great ancestor of Latin, Hebrew, Greek. There are the words that God gave us with all their denotations. After several milleniums of playing with them, we’ve not only transformed those God-given words, but we’ve encrusted them with cakes of connotation.
Don’t worry about your word-choice in the title. I think it’s clever, for whatever that’s worth.
I watched Becoming Jane the night before Valentine’s. An excellent film if you’re fascinated by the aesthetics of words. I love the language. It’s also about a ladies’ man who falls into true love, which is always a good thing.
Take care and don’t think too much.