Poetry Place Collected Poems

what is my name?

What is my name?
You ask me that?

I will tell you
If you want to know.

I was born
John Cosmos Aller
In Oakland, California.

But now I am Jake Cosmos Aller
Or J Cosmos
Or just Jake.

I was born in 1955
The Year of the Goat
A late October
Scorpio baby.

Aller
Is an old French German name
Dating back to the 15th century.

John well a biblical reference
My Mom having grown up
In a Christian family.

The name Cosmos
Has nothing to do
With being born
In the Bay Area.


My great grandfather
Wanted an English name
For our German family name
As a middle name.

He found in the dictionary
Cosmos or Universe
And chose Cosmos
And I am the last Cosmos Aller.

Though universe
Would have been
A good name
For a Berkeley kid
Child of the 60s.

Jake is a high school nickname
From a dream I had
When I was riding a horse
Yelling out Who Jake.

That became my catchphrase
And I became known
As the Whoa Jake Kid.

One more thing about names
My mother dated
The writer Philip K Dick.

And if things had worked out
I would have been born
As John or Jake Dick.

Unless you are Maya Angelou, Stephen King, or some other famous writer whose name alone is enough to draw an audience, the title is one of the most critical elements of a poem. As the only thing a prospective reader will see while scanning the list of items in a writer’s port or the Table of Contents in a book, it serves as the door which must be opened to enter the realm of the poet’s imagination. If that entrance does not generate some kind of interest, that browser will likely move along to the next item, or maybe even the next author.

Like the names of your children, a title gives the poem a specific identity. Of course, some poets eschew such traditions and leave their work without any identifying reference. Emily Dickinson did not put titles on her poems, even though her editors often did before publication. Frank O'Hara often applied simple, nondescript titles, such as Poem . Would you let your child go through life without a name? Then, why would you ever think of not naming your brainchild, or tagging it with some irrelevant label?

Because many poems are so short in comparison with other forms of literature, their name should capture the underlying essence of the expression as it sets the tone and prepares the reader for what is to come. Mark Twain once said, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug,” and I believe the same advice would apply to titles for a poem. This can be a struggle in many cases. Sometimes the title comes to the poet out of the blue as inspiration for an entire composition, and sometimes it hides within the shrubbery of the text.

Here are a few suggestions to aid you in your search for the perfect name:

1. Start with the title and let it propel you into the poem.

2. Use the first line of the poem as your title.

3. Provide a brief description of the poem's theme.

4. Find a phrase or image within the poem that can represent the whole.

5. If you are writing a narrative poem, an action verb may help engage the prospective reader with the experience being described.

6. Use your imagination to pluck lightning from the phantasmal cloud of cosmic pixie dust swirling around in your head.

Your assignment: Write a poem about the concept of NAMES.