In One Breath

By Raventongue

Thu, 08 Mar 2012
  • 927 reads
2 comments
 

The names of my heat, the names of my shadow
Names of truth and rumour, names of my core!
The names of my hands
A name on every hair of my head
The name of my gift
Unpronounceable names
Names deliberately obscured
Names from childhood, names from the gods

Names stolen and burned in with hot metal,
Names ripped out from between my ribs
Names used in anger-
Names shared and communal
Names only hinted at
Superstitious names;
Names from my enemies

Names misspelled and misheard
Names forgotten, names from children
Glorious names, fantasy names
Names given for arson and slander,
Eccentricity, anecdotes and unsafe hex
Names taken on in honour of my idols
Affectionately mocking names
Names of reputation

Pseudonyms, cadre names
Names among faeries, names given by birds
name daughter of someone, name from somewhere
Names of known alter egos, purposeful names
Secret names- infinite names
Names
-----------of
--------------downfall
It was too late; every last one sprang from her lips

Certificate PG
Three Kinds of Heart Poems
Love

Comments

Submitted by Anvar2 on
There's a lovely gushing quality to this that I very much enjoyed. Makes me want to know the world that this poem is from - feels a bit like an Earthsea kind of poem. Thanks for sharing.

Submitted by Raventongue on
Thank you :) This poem is partly from an Arthurian setting I've been flesching out for a while, but haven't written anything presentable in yet. In this and a couple of others ("Without Guests" for example) I've also used the legendary Merlin/Myrddin figure to refer to myself, so it's partly an autobiographical account of betrayal.