Inspired by Meredith Bergmann’s sculpture memorializing the victims of 9/11, and written to be read aloud, this poem was first performed by Annie at the sculpture’s installation in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York, and is currently installed in the Cathedral.

 

 

 

THE NAMING: A CHANT 

Lopez, Jurgens, Lozowksy, O’Connor, Lomax
(Shoes, and spirals, dust and the falling flowers)
Diaz, Dingle, Galletti, DiPasquale,
Katsimatides

Wounds widen the remembering earth.
Closed eyes see beyond the flames.
Grief opens hands to feel the wind.
Heart beats like ocean and hears the names:

DiStefano, Eisenberg, Chung, Green, Dolan,
(Women running suddenly in their high heels)
Penny, York, Duarte, Elferis, Sliwak,
Yamamadala,

Closed eyes see beyond the flames.
Grief opens hands to feel the wind.
Heart beats like ocean and hears the names.

Wounds widen the remembering earth:
Weinstein, Villanueva, West, Sadaque,
(Spirals, dust and spiralling dust and hours)
Bowman, Burns, Kawauchi, Buchanan, Reilly,
Reese, Ognibene,

Grief opens hands to feel the wind.
Heart beats like ocean and hears the names.
Wounds widen the remembering earth.
Closed eyes see beyond the flames.

Kushitani, Ueltzhoffer, Wong, Ferrugio,
(Breathed in only in or beyond the naming),
Inghilterra, Tzemis, Liangthanasam,
Coladonato-

Heart beats like ocean and hears the names.
Wounds widen the remembering earth.
Closed eyes see beyond the flames.
Grief opens hands to feel the wind

Sanchez, Talbot, Afflito, Siskopoulos
(Every question with a long sob of naming)
Tarantino, Zempoaltecatl, Thorpe, Koo,
Stergiopoulos

Zion, Zinzi, Song, Shahid, Santiago, Ortiz,
Pabon, Ou, O’Neill, Newton-Carter,
Miller, Mohammed,
Zakhary, Campbell,
Deming, DiFranco,
Chowdbury, Blackwell,
Zucker, McDowell,
Goldstein, Basmajian…

Wounds widen the remembering earth.
Closed eyes see beyond the flames.
Grief opens hands to feel the wind.
Heart beats like ocean and hears the names.

)O(

Credit: “The Naming” was commissioned for the installation of the 9-11 Memorial sculpture by Meredith Bergmann in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York. First published in Spells: New and Selected Poems by Annie Finch (Wesleyan University Press, 2012)

View of the sculpture and poem at St. John the Divine