#MIDDLEBURY
There Is No Name Yet
Dorothea Lasky
Until I find a name
I will not put it in the soul calculator
I will leave it free and open and unnamed
And not limit my expectations for the kind of person
That goes in one direction of the wind
I will keep all lines of the wind open
And place all my days free and empty
And re-envision what it means to be unencumbered
Or bereft
Not crying but the expanse of numbers
That go beyond the grave to what is left
And it may be true
I said it could be true
That the sunny days do stick to walls
And then enter you
It may be true that the purple bells do chime
Everyday you let them
It may be true that the sweet juice
I put across my lips would not be my last
But that the nights could get better and better
Until the evil is banished until the day
When the sun would crush it anyway
It was true without a set of things like letters
It was true the air was free and open
And I saw things as they were
Without violence
For the first time
About this poem
“I think naming is a very strange thing. We name books, babies, boats, planets, monuments, buildings, towns, chemical elements, food and animals – we give lovers and friends nicknames to show our devotion. A name really doesn’t matter until it does, and this poem is about that.” – Dorothea Lasky
About Dorothea Lasky
Dorothea Lasky is the author of “Rome” (Liveright/W.W. Norton, 2014). She teaches at Columbia University’s School of the Arts and lives in New York City.
The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day@poets.org.
(c) 2016 Dorothea Lasky. Originally published in Poem-a-Day, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
