It was such an exciting night to be part of Source Song Festival’s 5th Annual SongSLAM! Local poet Kathleen Cassen Mickelson had written such a colorful poem “Fall Farmers Market”, one in which all three of us connected with and related to, from the start! Here is the poem – enjoy! (The actual composition by Scott Senko took on the title of “The Many Colors of Love”).
Melissa Holm-Johansen, soprano / Bryon Wilson, piano / Scott Senko, composer
Fall Farmers Market
by Kathleen Casssen Mickelson
Splotches of red, green, purple, orange and yellow
Monet together until I put my glasses on,
grocery list in hand, morning air crisp, clear.
Farm trucks form two parallel lines,
back ends facing each other,
tables straining beneath this morning’s harvest.
I can’t resist the warty pumpkins
even though Halloween is over a month away.
Nor can I pass up perfect purple eggplant,
cherry tomatoes of red and gold,
shiny orange peppers,
earthy inky beets with bits of dirt
still stuck to their skins.
I dream of baba ghanousj, vegetable kebabs,
sheet pans of roasted goodness.
In this moment, pandemics seem far away,
cruelty impossible in the face of such abundance.
All I want is to cook for everyone,
show them the many colors of love.
Melissa Holm-Johansen 