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“The Naming: A Chant”: Memorial Poem for 9-11

 

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.

 

Meredith Bergmann's 9-11 memorial sculpture
Meredith Bergmann's 9-11 memorial sculpture

 

 

THE NAMING: A CHANT 

Lopez, Jurgens, Lozowsky, 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,
Chowdhury, 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)

Annie Finch and Meredith Bergmann, 9-11 Memorial Launch, Cathedral of St. John the Divine

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

 

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