Already We Know the Name of Things

Remember the street? Remember the sunlight that day and how the wind coming off the sea swept you into another life...

Note: Today’s piece is an excerpt from Stops Along the Way, a new collaboration from painter Tabby Ivy and writer Damon Falke. Our previous excerpts include “In Motion, Still,” “Route 96,” and “The Light Within.”

Today’s poem and painting appear with eight other pairings in a new booklet, available to purchase here, which was released in conjunction with the exhibition Stops Along the Way – Tabby Ivy and Damon Falke at The 2one3 in Carlton, Oregon.

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Morning’s Light, oil, 38x42 by Tabby Ivy

Already We Know the Name of Things

When does it happen that
You walk into town,
You walk across a park,
You walk through a grocery store,
Searching for deodorant or peppermint tea,
When you see yourself on a street
Where olive vendors handed out olives
Stored in small wooden bowls.
Remember the street? Remember the sunlight
That day and how the wind coming off the sea
Swept you into another life. How warm it felt.
How deliciously lonely. Even a gangplank caused you to
pause at the detriment between the boats and the pier.
It was your heart that saw the iron railing
Horseshoeing around the port. The windows
Flamed with gifts, with wine. A lover
Whose sentences ended with almost, with maybe,
With it would have been. But between aisles seven and eight
You stop. You lean forward against the cart,
As you reach for your forehead. Then before going on,
Before pushing ahead, you resist the urge
to say their names out loud—the street name,
the city, the lover, the sea. But imagine.
Imagine if this had been us.

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Stops Along the Way is the second collaboration between Tabby Ivy and Damon Falke, a writer, poet and playwright living in the far north of Norway. Their first collaboration resulted in the 2022 exhibition and book, Between Artists: Life in Paintings and Prose.

Both publications are available for purchase at https://www.tabbyivy.com/books

The exhibition was on view September 5th through November 6th, 2025 at The 2one3 in Carlton, Oregon.

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Damon Falke is the author of, among other works, The Scent of a Thousand Rains, Now at the Uncertain Hour, By Way of Passing, and Koppmoll (film). He lives in northern Norway.

Tabby Ivy now lives and works in Carlton, Oregon. Her home studio is a sanctuary for working, and reading her extensive collection of art books. Learn more at www.tabbyivy.com.

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