Sunday, February 17, 2008

call for "name poems"

Hi, everyone! We hope you had a great week writing from the name prompt. Post links to your poems in the comment section and visit all your poet friends who spent the week naming names.

Next weekend, we'll post a free-for-all and then on March 2 we start the whole thing over again with a new poet and poem up for discussion and inspiration!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

here's my name poem:

a baby girl born in the early hours of july 20, 1972

Anonymous said...

forgot to mention, in case anyone's new, my poems are password protected. sorry. email me if you want it: art [at] polkadotwitch [dot] com

you only need it once b/c i use the same one all the time.

Anonymous said...

My name poem is below. In French, my name "Therese" has two accent marks: one over the first "e" and one over the second "e." Those accent marks should appear in the poem below, but I don't know how to make them appear.

THERESE

Don't think that I was named for the ecstasy
of Avila. My mother had me baptized only
for the roses of Lisieux--a peasant
sweetness, not a Goya passion.

But so many of you confuse "Therese"
with that other Teresa
that I have long been possessed
by what I am not--quite mad
with denial.

A wrathful angel, I brandish swords
at the gates of my name--
above two letters "e,"
accents "grave" and "aigu."

Along with the flower's perfume, O Mother,
its thorns.

Linda Jacobs said...

Here's mine. Keeping my fingers crossed that this link works!

My entry

Anonymous said...

therese--i really enjoy your writing style. here, at least, it seems delicate. even though you're brandishing swords. and the contrast of those sensations is exactly the crux of your piece as said in your last line.

so on every level/layer, this poem is true to itself. i don't think i'm careful enough to achieve that in my own writing yet.

so thanks for sharing it!

on another note--has anyone noticed how these poems about names showcase our different voices perhaps more so than our other work has? that's interesting to me.

Linda Jacobs said...

Therese, this is such a cool take on the prompt! I just love the line, "I brandish swords at the gates of my name." I guess I'm lucky to have such a plain jane name, after all; no one ever messes it up!

Anonymous said...

from Therese--Thank you so much for your comments. Yes, I have to admit that I have always had some antipathy for my name, so this prompt riled me up. When I went to graduate school for my MFA, I asked everyone to call me "Gwen" instead (in honor of Gwendolyn Brooks). I much preferred being called "Gwen" than "Therese"!

Anonymous said...

I just discovered this blog. It looks like fun.

Here is my poem: Pam(ela)

Anonymous said...

Nicknames

The Phantom said...

Here's my take on this. This is my first posting to this group...be kind :-)

Nameless