Transmission
A poem by award-winning poet Ana Maria Caballero that explores the meaning behind the sounds that together compose our most frequently used words--our names.
A longer version of this poem was originally published by Gigantic Sequins Literary Journal and is part of Caballero's manuscript MAMMAL, designated as a Manuscript of Exceptional Merit by Tupelo Press.
Caballero's writing has won the Beverly International Prize for Literature, Colombia's José Miguel Arango National Poetry Prize + been a finalist for the Academy of American Poets Prize.
Her digital art was exhibited at Dreamverse + received a Sevens Foundation grant. Her NFTs are available via Fort Gallery NFT, MONOGRAMA NFT Gallery, Async.Art, Foundation, OBJKT.
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Transmission
Ana, as Greek root, means on, up, anew.
Ana in English is per.
As in person.
From the Latin personare— to sound through—
it comes from Roman theater,
from actors on stage whose echoes punctured costume,
pierced mask, to declare.
History’s irony, rich,
to tag as self the wearer of a fabricated face.
But Ana as name comes from the Hebrew and Arabic word for grace.
Communication is the transmission of information via sound.
Ah. N-ah.
What raw need is met by this call?