Namesake (Inspiration Point)

Cherry

By jennifer

Fri, 06 Feb 2009
  • 2580 reads
7 comments
 

Namesake (IP) (1st & 6th February, 2009, 2.36pm, 6.58am)

Jennifer Pickup – Googled

I remember the ball
coming in like a meteorite,
right between the eyes,
on target,
nose smarting,
friends laughing...

Those were the days:
Netball beside the bomb pit,
before depth perception became
more than a revelation;
before that trip to the optician,
back when the headaches came
from straining to see
what the teacher had written
from my position
in the back row.

Thirteen years later,
She steals my identity
from an ocean away;
my namesake, that
American entity
I’ll never meet...

She’s a basketball star;
the catcher of meteorites
flung from afar;
light on her feet, moving
fast in the way that I can’t;
agile, dextrous and fleet.

What’s in a name?
She would laugh to see
me fling a snowball,
pitiful and short; but I
wonder if she could write
lines like these about me?

Certificate U
Poem
Mind Stew (2009)
Autobiography

Comments

Submitted by Ewan on
Lovely, like the meteorite ball analogy and the way you come back to it. No, I reckon she probably couldn't. Ewan

Author Page at the 'Zon
 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on
It is fascinating to learn of the existence of a namesake. We wonder if we have anything in common but we don't know for sure. We create our own scenario because we cannot intrude in their private lives. Can she write lines like yours? Probably not but in our imaginary world she might be a first class poet, the mirror image of yourself. Luigi xx

 

Submitted by jennifer on
Thank you, gentlemen! It is very strange to think of other people with our names going about their lives, isn't it? Quite creepy, really... Which ancient religion believed that if you knew somebody's name, you had power over them? J x

 

Submitted by anipani on
Agile, dextrous and fleet , I would say you have those qualities on the page! A really good response to the inspiration point. I was toying, but didn't sort anything out! Got scared googling me, didn't want to lose myself in someone else's life, what if I liked hers more than mine!

anipani

Submitted by threeleafshamrock on
Excellence is this! Chris X

Submitted by onemorething on
I think this is excellent - a very good take on the IP. (I can't find an exact namesake myself - the closest is a rather portly erotic model who looks like a Victorian porn star, I can't quite bring myself to attempt the IP at the moment). The only thing I wondered about this is whether you need the last stanza, it feels a bit obvious and self justifying when I don't think you need to be - it changes the resonance of the whole piece when I reach them though I can see that ending with the previous stanza would be a bit sharp. Perhaps it's just that I liked the idea you conjured up so well of finding a namesake who was good at something you weren't and the poignancy of that which is quashed with the last stanza. If that makes any sense...

 

Submitted by jennifer on
Yes, dammit, it does! My ego got in the way! Gah! J x