Poem: Names
Dec. 27th, 2015 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shiori_makibaPoem: Names
by shiori_makiba / Ashley Weyer
Warning: Nonspecific reference to people treating others badly.
“Names”
Names are important things.
Probably one of the most important things.
This can be difficult for people to remember
because they don't always seem like it.
To the ignorant or just plain forgetful, it is just a word.
And that is exactly why they are wrong.
Because a name is a word.
And words are never just anything.
Words carry immense power.
Words can harm or heal in equal measure
and with far greater ease than any other power in the universe.
A name is a word chosen to mean someone,
a specific someone.
Either chosen by others or by one's self,
it means them.
It means them is a way that only partially has to do
with the arrangement of letters and sounds.
The feelings between giver and receiver, listener and speaker, and their memories
make each name resonate with its own frequency.
That is why two might share the same word
but they don't share the same name.
A name can be a gift.
From parent to child,
a wish for success, beauty, happiness, strength, and more.
From sibling to sibling,
a sign of shared exasperated fondness.
From friend to friend,
a reminder of a memory they both carry.
From lover to lover,
a hope for the future and blessings from the heart.
A name can be a curse.
A knife meant to cut with every utterance.
Some of these are bestowed by open enemies
who make no secret of their desire to harm.
That can make the cut painful but shallow.
Others are bestowed by hidden enemies,
the ones who smile to one's face while sharpening their blades.
Because it allows them to sink the knife in deeper.
The last are the worse because they don't believe they are enemies.
They believe they are friends and that they only are helping.
They are the ones who can stab down to the soul
and never see the blood.
Names are sticky things.
Once given, they are all but impossible to get rid of.
Not that people don't try.
Sometimes this is benign.
The person simply doesn't care for that name for one reason or another,
and uses another for themselves.
Through there always seems to be one person
who refuses to use any name but that one.
Sometimes it is malicious.
An attempt to make that someone into something lesser.
To turn them into an object, a thing to be used and discarded at their whim.
Such things do not need names.
And if they do, it is only the name their master gives them.
That is why names are sometimes a secret.
Because what the evil ones don't know about,
they cannot harm or take away.
by shiori_makiba / Ashley Weyer
Warning: Nonspecific reference to people treating others badly.
“Names”
Names are important things.
Probably one of the most important things.
This can be difficult for people to remember
because they don't always seem like it.
To the ignorant or just plain forgetful, it is just a word.
And that is exactly why they are wrong.
Because a name is a word.
And words are never just anything.
Words carry immense power.
Words can harm or heal in equal measure
and with far greater ease than any other power in the universe.
A name is a word chosen to mean someone,
a specific someone.
Either chosen by others or by one's self,
it means them.
It means them is a way that only partially has to do
with the arrangement of letters and sounds.
The feelings between giver and receiver, listener and speaker, and their memories
make each name resonate with its own frequency.
That is why two might share the same word
but they don't share the same name.
A name can be a gift.
From parent to child,
a wish for success, beauty, happiness, strength, and more.
From sibling to sibling,
a sign of shared exasperated fondness.
From friend to friend,
a reminder of a memory they both carry.
From lover to lover,
a hope for the future and blessings from the heart.
A name can be a curse.
A knife meant to cut with every utterance.
Some of these are bestowed by open enemies
who make no secret of their desire to harm.
That can make the cut painful but shallow.
Others are bestowed by hidden enemies,
the ones who smile to one's face while sharpening their blades.
Because it allows them to sink the knife in deeper.
The last are the worse because they don't believe they are enemies.
They believe they are friends and that they only are helping.
They are the ones who can stab down to the soul
and never see the blood.
Names are sticky things.
Once given, they are all but impossible to get rid of.
Not that people don't try.
Sometimes this is benign.
The person simply doesn't care for that name for one reason or another,
and uses another for themselves.
Through there always seems to be one person
who refuses to use any name but that one.
Sometimes it is malicious.
An attempt to make that someone into something lesser.
To turn them into an object, a thing to be used and discarded at their whim.
Such things do not need names.
And if they do, it is only the name their master gives them.
That is why names are sometimes a secret.
Because what the evil ones don't know about,
they cannot harm or take away.
