Naming

“To name is to praise and lose in one instant.”~Christian Wiman

With each step, we flatten a new leaf: 
the striped maple, tulip poplar, 
fat three-fingered sassafras,

draw our eyes down, then up again 
to find their source; 
a see-saw gravity.

My husband kneels, compares each  
with his Trees of the Smokies guide.
He is Adam naming the animals.     

When young, I imagined Adam as
a door-prize announcer, pulling each name
(surprise!) from a shaken hat. 

Now, I walk ahead 
and study the creature within me
I know by movement alone,

looking down, swelled belly,
and up again to find your name,
perhaps in the bark of a tree? or a star?

one in the multitude Abraham saw.
Did he know God? 
Nameless and many-named.

Do I know you, my unnamed one,
or you, me? 
closer now than you will ever be.  

I sense you blindly
by your sudden, gentle flight in me,
your soul too vast to pin down. 

Yet we must give you a sound – 
to be called out in corridors,
whispered with desire – 

an echo that might– 
one day–open you, 
a handle to grasp and let go. 

Originally published in Crux.