Walisiyi calls!

 

power in the naming

though we name our children before we even know them,

should we name a tree, a waterfall, a stream, a mountain the same way?

shouldn't their names come out of knowing them?

my favorite mountain was capriciously named for a man

who probably never even saw it,

let alone walked it,

let alone saw sunset and sunrise from its top,

a man who didn't know it,

I argue we should bring back the name

the Indigenous Cherokee called it,

for their naming was part and parcel of the gestalt

of their intimate relationship with the world,

a mountain not just lifeless rock draped with a green forest,

but rather a place with spirit,

a living power that is of a whole

with how they felt the world,

naming should be powerful, like with God in Genesis,

too often our culture seems to feel as a collector:

kill the insect, the bird, mount it in a collection,

record its name, for then we feel we know it,

and it is ours,

a mountain is not ours,

and its name should honor it,

a mountain belongs to itself, 

and we should relate to it as to a friend.

by Henry H. Walker

January  1, ‘25