BIO
ORIGIN from Greek bios ‘(course of) human life.’ The sense is extended in modern scientific usage to mean‘organic life.’
Meridian Johnson is the author of Kinesthesia, a full-length poetry collection (New Rivers Press 2010). Her poems and essays have appeared in AGNI, Borderlands, Beloit Poetry Journal, Dislocate, Gettysburg Review, Massachusetts’s Review, NPR’s On Being and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota with a graduate minor in Complementary and Alternative Therapies (CAM), and a BA in English from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. She is also an alternative medicine practitioner, life coach, mediator (Transformative Approach), and an advocate for transformation through community dialogue. She lives in northern New Mexico with her two daughters.
Personal note on bios:
A friend said, "The moment I call myself 'a man,' there I go again, chopping myself into fifty percent of my potential, cutting myself off from all that I AM!"
I am. (Formless)
I am Woman. (Form)
I write. Poems, essays, stories, screenplays. I take a lot of photographs. I read the dictionary.
I express vitality through movement.
I hold ceremonial space for others to give birth: to babies, to ideas, to resource, to new versions of Self and Community.
I am Meridian Stephanie Johnson. Poet. Writer. Storyteller. Seeker. Teacher. Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist. Ceremonial Guide. Activist. Innovator. Pilot. Dancer. Mother. Daughter. Sister. Lover. Traveler. Maverick. Names. Roles.
I am continually rewriting my story to see more clearly who I am in the context of this vast expanse of Creation. To align with the creative. To be an authentic contributor. I am defined by the voices of the communities I inhabit.
I embrace and believe in the power of togetherness. And I’m a hermit; I gestate in the Void. Exploring apparent contractions. Yes is: no such thing as lack. Laughing and playing with absurdity. Finding center and caring for it. Enjoying life through the senses: seeing, tasting, touching, smelling, and hearing the concrete reality around me that teaches me more thoroughly about how love manifests.
Reaching my Yes is my method of embodiment. Dancing in the questions that arise. I love simplicity and intricacy. I relish complication and challenge evolving towards something beautiful and resourceful.
I swim rivers. I climb. I dance, a lot. I make music. I seek the deep unparalleled wisdom of sensations in the body.
I believe in the power of words to create a healing field for transformation to take place in our world. I believe in magic. I believe in magic. I believe Life is magic.
{Photo by Andrew Hunt Photography}