Spider Woman
by Angélica Perez
My name is Jewell Rodgers and I am the State Poet of Nebraska. Today we are hearing from Angélica Perez.
Angélica is a Core Teaching Artist with the Nebraska Writers Collective, where she supports Teaching Artists and young poets, helps to run monthly open mics and slams in Omaha, and leads poetry workshops with incarcerated people throughout Nebraska. Perez is also a faculty member of The Naturalist School. Her work there is rooted in creative ecology; she leads workshops on nature writing, native seed collecting, and tree planting. You'll often find her in a tree or on her longboard, trying to add to her collection of bumps, bruises, and bug bites. It’s true. I do often see her in nature.
Her poem is titled Spider Woman.
Spider Woman
there’s poets in my hair again
so small
so sweet
so quick on their feet
they climb me and I hold them best as I can
Limbs akimbo to be the best foothold I can be
I think they liiiiiike me
I think they want to run through my branches like cicada song
I think they wonder why my roots are on my head instead of underground
One crawls up my neck and whispers in my ear
Shhhhhhhhhhh
Listen to me, two-legs
Cause oooooh i’m a song
A scuttling scurrying storyline, an anecdotal arachnid weaving invisible witticisms all around your feet, in your hair
You could barely tell how intertwined your life is with mine until the sunlight shines on my silk lines just right
And you catch the glint of good stories trailing behind me
I’ll share some with you
if you can learn to be still
if you can learn that your story doesn't stop at your skin
Learn to look out for the little things in life
if you could shhhhhhhhhh
Used with Permission
What I like about this poem is how she brings the little things to life. She takes something many people are afraid of – spiders – and makes them very gentle, approachable, inviting. The poem asks you to settle down – or at least the spider does. So, listen to your body and notice the bodies around you.
I love how the language of this poem becomes an audible experience. Its vowels are stretched. Your hissing consonants. There is a rhythm that begs to be heard. It feels like a poem that’s been deeply listened to as well as written. The cicada and spider images are especially smart because they are both loud and small – a perfect parallel to poets who make noise by being tiny, precise, persistent.
Some of the lines I love, “Sunlight shines on / my silk lines just right / and you catch the glint of my stories trailing behind me . . . “
I love that. The stories don’t belong to the speaker alone. They reveal themselves when someone pays attention.
And I love the, “Shhhhhhhhh,” throughout. It is a quiet invitation to open your mind to see what you know it is even beyond this poem. It’s an incredible practice to take with you through life, a way to notice what is going on around you, a way to be more present. This poem invited you to be more present by way of this simple back and forth with a spider who – and I absolutely love this – is calling the writer “two-legs.”
So, I think this poem is beautiful for what it invites you to do and also the simple and subtle humor and imagery that it brings.
Shout out to Angélica Perez. If you would like to learn more about her, she can be found on social media. I will be spelling her name out now because this is radio. You feel free to reach out to her as you wish.
My name is Jewell Rodgers and I am the State Poet of Nebraska. I will talk to you soon.
POETS ON THE PLAINS HOST
Jewel Rodgers is the 2025–2029 Nebraska State Poet, a 2025 Academy of American Poets Fellowship recipient, and a 2025 AIRIES Fellow. A three-time Omaha Entertainment and Arts Award nominee for Best Performance Poet and a three-time TEDx speaker, she is a nationally touring interdisciplinary performer and spatial practitioner. Jewel merges art, storytelling, and placemaking to inspire and connect audiences across the U.S. and beyond. https://www.jewelrodgers.com/ (Bloom)
FEATURED POET
Angélica Perez is a Core Teaching Artist with the Nebraska Writers Collective, where she supports Teaching Artists and young poets, helps to run monthly open mics and slams in Omaha, and leads poetry workshops with incarcerated people throughout Nebraska. Perez is also a faculty member of The Naturalist School. (https://thenaturalistschool.org/ ) Her work there is rooted in creative ecology; she leads workshops on nature writing, native seed collecting, and tree planting. You'll often find her in a tree or on her longboard, trying to add to her collection of bumps, bruises, and bug bites. (Spider Woman)
