Meditations on the Vishuddha Chakra
Meditations on the Vishuddha Chakra
5
Name Her!
It started—let’s say—
about this time
twenty-three years ago
reading Graves’ White Goddess
in a drafty room
the space of the fat book crammed with tiny print
the moon of my belly
full with something not yet named
but stirring
(any night now)
the space of my head full of alphabets
and prohibitions
—woman is not a poet: she is either a Muse or she is nothing—
and I wrote a poem that month about God and Popeye
sharing the same name
—I Yam What I Yam and That’s All That I Yam—
in an almost empty room
the cold pacing bow-legged across the bare floor cartoon-like
waiting for the water to break
But what’s her name? I kept asking kept
reading time running
out until finally
—page 372—
And indeed if one needs a single, simple, inclusive name
—one needs—
for the Great Goddess
(O Lost Generation Capitals!)
Anna is the best choice
and there I had her
Sherry Robbins, from Pilgrimage
Sherry Robbins 