can you believe that we're already halfway through national poetry month? for the next week spiderweb salon will be sharing poetry by some of the most best local writers in DFW who will also be featured live and loud at the Poetry Party this saturday! (and even after the show we'll be sharing fantastic writing until the end of the month!) find your new favorite poet right here and RSVP to have some fun with us this weekend on the beautiful patio at Wine Squared. we can't wait!
to start this week off on the right foot, we're sharing a dreamy poem by Machele Johnson, titled For the Birds. Machele is an impressively multi-talented writer, artist, musician, and collaborator in our local circuits, and we look forward to hearing her voice on the stage again this weekend! along with her wonderful poem, Machele has also left us a short but sweet writing prompt for us today: Write a love poem about an inanimate object.
For the birds
A mix of touch,
Voice,
Rhythm, and melody.
Alignment translates as tickles,
While ideals are broken,
Ultimatums materialize,
Egos dance and fires burn
My soul is hungry,
She wants to dine on dreams,
Quench thirst on tears past shed,
Rub out kinks and knots birthed from awareness, and cry at the moon.
Maybe she'll hear her this time,
...maybe not.
That wave is starting again,
I want to grind it out on you.
Get messy again,
Feel your words in my spine,
Hands under my skin.
I want to feast on creation with you.
Melt under you.
You touch in the deepest of places,
While keeping your distance.
Unique.
A different way of praise,
I feel like a goddess in your hands.
Once you held my fears and dreams.
Support is what you were,
Now a nostalgic whisper.
Hugs have a new taste.
I can't remember when I lost you.
Now the air is seasoned with the south,
Sweet tea and sweat.
Songs of swooping Blue jays
Decorate the sun's warm greeting
On warm mornings like this,
I'm reminded of our music.
I don't need the weight of the past however,
So I hum a song for the blue jays.
Machele Johnson is a Dallas based poet and musician who has been sharing her words and sounds for a little over a year and a half. A melomaniac since birth, Machele's inspirations for writing are sound and music with its complexities and structure. She has a need to study, experiment, and report back on the numerous, wordless joys and sorrows one can experience while lost in sound. As well as rejoice in the similarities of the human experience and harmony.
Machele Johnson at spiderweb salon's fourth annual winter formal | photo by Geoffrey Ussery | 2017