The Names We Carry

By Khayelihle Benghu

This collection explores uncertainty as a form of belief. Moving between intimate domestic spaces and broader social, ecological, and ethical questions, the poems ask how we live when answers are provisional and survival itself feels conditional. The work engages themes of climate anxiety, inherited responsibility, faith without certainty, family memory, and the quiet negotiations of care. Rather than offering resolution, "The Names We Carry" lingers in questioning, treating doubt as a site of attention, tenderness, and moral reckoning. These poems often draw on ordinary rituals, kitchens, tables, bodies at rest or in tension while reframing them through spiritual and philosophical inquiry. The collection blends lyric clarity with reflective intensity, aiming to hold both the personal and the collective without collapsing one into the other.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1774034115
• ISBN13: 9781774034118
• Release Date: February 2026
• Publisher: Silver Bow Publishing
• Length: 92 Pages
• Weight: 0.31 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.1" x 9.2"