these names that have lost their origins
names that have lost their sounds
that have lost their meanings
lost meanings without references
without words words that once rolled off
the tongue rolled off the tongue
immense with meaning
with meaning now lost now
untranslatable immense and untranslatable
these names without meaning
these names belonging nowhere
belonging nowhere to no one to no one
at all invisible undernourished
undernourished and withered into invisibility
without a way a way to put sounds together
sounds that together form words
words that become names
these names that are lost
these names without scripts
without scripts or context without
the context of language a language
of mirrors mirrors now empty
mirrors that yield no answers
answers to questions questions
without context how and what and where
and why are they lost and where did they go
who knows the names the names the names
the names that have lost their meaning
For dVerse, where Bjorn has us chanting,
K. 
Names….words….tumbling into the abyss of time, never to be seen again. Sigh.
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It’s true Beverly. Too much has been lost.
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We lose … we lose too much. Well penned!!!
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Thanks Helen. Yes we have been poor caretakers of many things.
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You’ve touched on one of my obsessions here, Kerfe! I have always dreamed of deciphering a lost language, in particular Linear A from Bronze Age Crete. I am looking at your designs and wondering if they could be based on the Indus Valley script? They look familiar but I can’t quite place them…
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Thanks Ingrid. It’s actually what the back of cross stiching looks like. My grandmother taught me to make sure my stitching always looked as beautiful on the back as it did on the front–and sometimes it’s even more interesting.
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Wow! Masquerading as a lost language which in a way it is…
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I agree.
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Kerfe, as soon as I started reading, I thought of the Indigenous children who were taken from their homes and placed in Indian Schools and elsewhere who got “lost” one way or another. They’ve lost their names and so much more. Your creative mind is being put to powerful work. I see your art and stitching as hieroglyphics that speak volumes.
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Thanks Jade. That was definitely in my mind. The West is not kind to cultures different from their own. Profit where they can and eradicate the rest.
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You are welcome.
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Really makes you wonder what else has been lost in time, that faded and could never be deciphered or re-learned. What other languages are out there that may have existed? What books and literature, that were once destroyed or lost, existed that contained certain knowledge and information? It’s interesting to think about, but as well wistful for what we may not exactly know.
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That’s true Lucy. There are disadvantages to assimilation when it means losing a unique cultural heritage that goes beyond just language.
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BTW your website will not take my comments since I have to log in to make them. Another WordPress glitch. But I like how your chant becomes spell casting.
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WP is just amazing…
But, thank you so much! That’s kind of you to say about my piece. ❤️
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exactly what I thought of as well….
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An intriguing chant, K! When even words like “man/woman” are losing their meaning today, how will we communicate?
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That’s so true Lynn. Many words have totally lost any meaning. They are loaded with personal associations that not everyone shares. It does make communication difficult. (K)
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An interesting theme to explore – lost and meaning are the words that stood for me. This made me reflect on lost heritage, lost names, buried and lost language. I can imagine the implications of this – far deeper it can go in one’s lifetime. Your artwork compliments this beautifully.
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Thanks Grace. I think language touches everything about the way we live and think.
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That’s wonderful. It makes me think of the Aboriginal people here involved in reclaiming their lost languages. So much meanings bound up in words – meanings that disappear when the words aren’t used.
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Thanks Suzanne. So much of the early history of humans was passed down orally. And each language has its own subtle beauty and meaning. Part of the culture is lost when the language disappears. It’s happened/happening to native peoples here too.
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oh, this wonderful, loved the phrasing of this poem, it gave a kind of a serpentine “back and forth” movement, and a very intriguing subject, lost languages are always very fascinating to me. very well written
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Thanks Phillip. We can’t recover them fully once they are gone.
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Timely post. Like Ingrid, I’m dipping into what we know and what we speculate about Linear A. One of the many differences between peoples, civilisations, that we want to understand.
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I’ll have to look up Linear A. I’m not familiar with it, but there is so much we have lost–if we can recover even a little bit, it would be a good thing.
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As I Lisa wrote, this made me think of the mass-graves in those Canadian boarding schools.
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It’s hard to forget those, isn’t it?
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Wow; this leaves me with a heavy feeling of loss, Kerfe 😦
At first, I didn’t even realize it was a chant, until I noticed the words repeating themselves – it’s a poem that flows and feels totally natural – like these words were meant to be together.
-David
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Thanks David. The earth is losing parts of itself, humans are losing parts of themselves, at a dizzying pace. You are right to value and want to pass on your cultural heritage. So much has been destroyed or erased in the name of progress or power.
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This is so skillfully rendered! I love how gorgeously the repeating lines flow into one another adding to the depth and power of the poem. Kudos! 💝💝
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Thanks Sanaa.
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