“On Naming,” Poem, Alex Dawson.

On Naming

The deciduous forest; a dense ecosystem

of broadleaf trees. A tender lung, each branch

a bronchiole, each creature that inhabits it,

a sort of brief exhale. And two girls, two twin

aspens, planted in the shade, toe-dug in the

topsoil, more organisms at their feet than humans

on this Earth. They are scared and also thrilled

at what might live beneath the fragile surface

of their knowing. The forest hums and chuckles,

an Eastern Phoebe zips across their vision, water

gliders leave their cursive love notes on the creek,

there and then gone. I know what these things are

now. Lately, I have become a keeper of names.

Perhaps a way of holding onto something as other

things begin to slip away. Precision is a sort of haven,

just ask my refugee students, who know that to name

something is to say that it’s still here. I, too, repeat

the names of memories  in the dark. Varadero.

A painting of people dancing, covering a fisthole,

like a portal to bad days. A 1992 Mazda. Bright

as a blood streak.“Just say your father lost control.”

Not technically a lie to anyone who’s ever loved

an addict. To name something is to say that it’s still

here. I speak my name to a different forest now.

It is perhaps the only other being that remembers

those two girls, whispering, “Let’s live here forever”.

And now, the great bouquets of warblers have returned,

and I listen to their songs in a quiet sort of reverence.

I follow them through the threads of morning light,

I take out my notebook, I write down each trembling

name.

Alex Dawson is a writer, wildlife photographer and adult ESL teacher from Toronto. She published a photo-poetry book entitled “All these Living Things” last year, which landed at #2 in nature poetry on Amazon’s Bestseller List. She has been published by “Queen’s Quarterly”, “The Bombay Literary Magazine”, “Gather Poets” and “Humana Obscura”. Her writing can be found on Instagram and Substack @alexdawcreates. Alex writes with constant curiosity about the intersection between nature, memory, identity and culture.

Image: Wesley R. Bishop, Watercolor Pencil, 2025.