Limits of Language
Emily Church
Image by Raphael Schaller
for Orion
I see you like the spring opening,
ripe with a fragrance unnameable
a flower we identified incorrectly
attempting to capture your beauty
ultimately indescribable.
Driving the circuitous roads of home
strapped into your throne holding court, you ask
Who invented words? and I am stilled again
your hidden thinking pinning me like a butterfly
set for closer inspection.
A mother should have all the answers, so
casually off the cuff, simple as can be, I say
All our human ancestors made up language,
every word we use to describe the physical world
and also what we cannot see.
Words are not enough.
A name is only letters jumbled together
in order to signify, to identify, to codify
yet, a rose is a rose is a rose,
to name something is to have great power
and I never wanted that responsibility.
Now the name we gave you is set free
untethered from your body, no longer your describer.
It was never truly you, but a placeholder
a title for an idea that someone else (I)
had at your birth.
The reckoning comes suddenly while I am standing
in the middle of the kitchen, dinner plates in hand,
and the name that slips from my lips
seems to arrive with no thought
like it was lying there all the while
beneath the other names
waiting for the days to ripen—
three stars upon your cheek
calling through the universe
to be born again in your body.
Emily Church
Emily Church is an interdisciplinary artist working in the mediums of painting, drawing, book making, and poetry. She holds a BFA in sculpture and an MFA in painting and has attended artist residencies at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, France, the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT, and Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, NY. Her paintings, drawings, and artist books can be found in numerous university, corporate, and private collections. She lives with her spouse and two children in Brooklyn, NY. Church’s work can be found on her website at emilychurchart.com and on Instagram @emilychurchart.