I Recognize You; Looking My Name Up by Sharon Berg

I Recognize You

I recognize you

in the lines you place on paper

in the words you recite to an audience

in the hopes you express

for creating community

and the memories you hold

of being there

in the midst of a struggle, a war

that asks for recognition of

the need for people to express

their belonging to a particular place

belonging to a gathering of consciousness

within their sacred attachment to each other

and the meanings they locate

in a particular territory. Yes, I recognize

you by your interest in supporting

the right of others to assert their

being on a piece of land

through generations, through gatherings

and ceremony, through words and story

or music. For the people on any

ancestral territory honour themselves

and their ancestors in these ways.

I am recognizing you as I

recognize myself

Looking My Name Up

as other authors often do, you’ll find me

at a Funeral Home in Linton Illinois in 2023

though that’s not me/just my name,

or I’m a Massage Therapist

in Sutherland Chan,

but I have a video poem on Porkopolis

which I never submitted, though it’s mine

and even on the first page of the search

I passed away in Montreal Quebec in 2023

though that is just my name, not me

and it’s the same for the Life Coach

and the Home Team Advocacy Organization

or the Victim Services Coordinator.

My name appears again and again,

placed between my book review

and website pages or individual

poems and stories published in magazines

around the globe

Often I’d swear my name is more

popular than the mouse the cat caught.