Name Poem
A.J. Seymour

Beauty about us in the breathe of names
Known to us all, but murmured over softly
Woven to breath of peace

If but a wind blows, all their beauty wakes.

Kwebanna on the Waini--Indian words
And peace asleep withing the syllables.
Cabacaburi and the Rupununi
Reverence is guest in that soft hush of names.
For battle music and the roll of drums,
The shock and break of bodies locked in combat
The Tramen Cliff above Imbaimadai.

Guiana, Waini are cousin water words ...

The Demerary, Desakepe and Courantyne
Flow centuries before strange tongues bewitch
Their beauty into common county names.

Through all the years before the Indian cames
Rocks at Tumatumari kept their grace,
And Tukeit, Amatuck and Waratuk
Trained ear and eye for thundering Kaieteur.

And there are mountain tops that take the sun
Jostling shoulders with seaward-eyed Roraima.

These Amerindian names hold ancient sway
Beyond the European fingers reaching,
Forever reaching in, but nearer coast
Words born upon Dutch tongues live in our speech.
The sentinel that was Kykoveral
Beterverwagting, Vlissengen and Stabroek
And the sonorous toll of bells in Vergenoegen.

For French remembrance, Le Ressouvenir
The silent and great tomb of an exile's anguish,
La Repentir--the city of the dead ...

Simple the heritage of English names
Hid in Adventure, Bee Hive, Cove and John,
And in Friendship, Better Hope and Land of Canaan.
Garden of Eden and ... so Paradise

Out west are places blessed by Spanish tongues
Santa Rosa, white chapel on a hill ...

Beauty about us in the breathe of names,
If but a wind blows, all their beauty wakes.