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Naomi Cohn lives and writes in St. Paul , Minnesota. Recent recognition of her poetry includes grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and VSA Arts of Minnesota, as well as residencies at Anderson Center, Norcroft and Pine Needles. Her work has appeared in various publications and exhibits, including Main Channel Voices, Water~Stone, Home Sweet Home Again, Fish Stories, Disclosure and Conscious Choice.

Naomi Cohn 

Naming 

There are more than 35,000 named species worldwide, but probably most spider species are still awaiting identification–
National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects & Spiders  

Clambering to web-top,
with my eight simple eyes
I scan the mossy woods. 

My spiderlings have shot the air
with silk and ballooned away.
Every night I tidy the web, check
my larder— all the flies
have stopped struggling.  

With my many-jointed legs,
I can count as high
as two cycles of the moon's
fat and lean nights. 

Reflected in the night rain
pooled on the forest floor,
I see my black
constellation of eyes. 

No one else can know
what it is to build a web
each night and destroy it each dawn.
Eating my night's work

to spare the waste
of daylight's birds blundering
through my perfect sticky creation,
fracturing the architecture of my life. 

Each night I make my web,
each day I tear it down—
I sit in the woods,
holding unspoken the name
I have chosen for myself.

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