Shel Graves' Sensorium

This is my usual writer's journal to keep track of the senses and not part of the Space Explorer 365 project (365 words of story for 365 days from March 20, 2016 to March 19, 2017) ... Taste: lavender green tea, lavender white peony tea Sight: a card playing cat Sound: shuffling Smell: eucalyptus; chocolate chai Touch: foot massage; inhaling steam Extra: "Pure attention, the essence of the powers!" — Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus; reification (German: Verdinglichung, literally: "making into a thing") objectification Grateful for: Sam, Trooper, Mary Shelley, playing games, dragons

Taste: vegan benedict; black licorice; Northwest Totem Cellars grenache Sight: cerulean sky; clockwork owls ; Liba's eyes; - Liba Stambollion ; Krab Jab Studio ; the Pink E, the White E; coot foot a member of the rail family Sound:  wind, rain, pelting, gusting Smell: chai chocolate Indi lotion  ; sodium, chloride, potassium in steaming hot water Touch:  skin Extra: "This series is dedicated to all creatures chained, in kennels and in cages. Each portrait is framed in an antique bird perch Where once a bird was chained A happier creature is now framed." — Liba W. Stambollion,  Liberated Creatures :   "In the fine evenings they would sail out to sea in the old fishing boat; they did not fish, for they did not like to give pain to, and to destroy animals, but they would observe the dancing waves, and the rocky shores; and if they stayed out long after sunset they saw how the stars came out one by one till the whole sky was covered with them...

This is my usual writer's journal to keep track of the senses and not part of the Space Explorer 365 project (365 words of story for 365 days from March 20, 2016 to March 19, 2017) ... Taste: apple fritter; maca powder Sight: a towering white E a pink E Sound: kiss-o-drome Smell:  curry powder Touch: a warm bluster Extra:  epithalamium: noun a song or poem celebrating a marriage; learning to wear a hijab; a religious holiday where everyone receives a free meal - feed the poor; teaching a tiny man of a string to fly;  Schumann Resonance ; " Banana Palace " by Dana Levin; " Protest ,” Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 1914 " Persistence is the best resistance — moving from the marches to the everyday politics of care on all levels. Communicate care. Teach care. Pressure your existing officials. Send emails. Make phone calls. Tweet. Elect officials who care at all levels. Run for office. Work in campaigns. Be positive. Positive." — George Lakoff  Grateful fo...

Urine Song  A detestable substance comes from your body, Once excreted you no longer own it, Some say you never owned what was inside you, Your body inside you is not you, For what comes out you cannot be responsible. Men stand on the streets in brown robes and wave placards. Inside small brick palaces women save lives. Urine's a ward of the state. Parts of you, you don't know which ones, are shameful. — This is how we mark our territory, with evaporating water, With words that leave traces of potassium, chloride and sodium. With chemicals only wolves' noses would touch. Our system filters undesirables out. Its kidneys remove: salt, sugar, substance, It reabsorbs harmless ions back into its blood. Water fills bladders with shame. It rains a fetish of golden excess. Drink with disgust, you don't know but you'd want, your own water. — There's a man dehydrated in the desert, His children carry his desiccated body, Their...

On April 27, 1958, Richard and Pat Nixon embarked on a goodwill tour of South America. In Montevideo, Uruguay, Nixon made an impromptu visit to a college campus, where he fielded questions from students on U.S. foreign policy. The trip was uneventful until the Nixon party reached Lima, Peru, where he was met with student demonstrations. Nixon went to the campus, got out of his car to confront the students, and stayed until forced back into the car by a volley of thrown objects . At his hotel, Nixon faced another mob, and one demonstrator spat on him.[90] In Caracas, Venezuela, Nixon and his wife were spat on by anti-American demonstrators and their limousine was attacked by a pipe-wielding mob.[91] — Richard Nixon, Wikipedia ; Ambrose, Stephen E. (1987). Nixon: The Education of a Politician 1913–1962. New York: Simon & Schuster. A Volley of Thrown Objects  Let us begin with a grizzly bear launched from the North Cascades, Add a lion, a cheetah, a white rhino horn,  ...

A Single Perfect Sentence: Writers Resist  It could be a great novel, Or, perhaps, a novella, a short story, an essay, a poem, A single perfect sentence might do. A sentence that sings that captures her meaning, A sentence once heard that inspires a person. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin , 1852  A sentence containing utopia, A sentence expressing a vision, a future, A sentence you see yourself in. A solar sentence, a female sentence, a sentient sentence, A sentence with no extinct animals. Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind, 1936  It might be a smooth or a tricksy sentence. It could be the sentence that finds your lost daughter. The sentence that winds through the woods. The sentence that writes a writer her way, The sentence she wears like a hood. Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird , 1960  This sentence goes on and on. This sentence comes to an end. This sentence converses, says much in small spaces, Senten...

How She is Marked for Kissing  Poetry fills my heart, The white spot upon her head Exists for kissing. Words sing out and sing out through my soul. I bow to press my lips; my heart rises. I thought things were one way. I awoke and they were another. Come joyful awakening, See, this spot has always existed On bowed heads of beloved creatures. Luscious words taste incredibly golden, agave, Drip gentle beauty, vegan honey, Everything I ever desired exists Between my pressed lips. My heart fills with poetry, and I awaken, To sing out and sing out, never to be silenced. A furred spot in the dark glows. Her perfect design, her perfect nature, agape, Small, quiet fury, filled with captured words. See, devout-child, how she is marked. Kiss her. Know her. Set her free.

This is my usual writer's journal to keep track of the senses and not part of the Space Explorer 365 project (365 words of story for 365 days from March 20, 2016 to March 19, 2017) ... Taste: Satsuma orange; red curry; brown rice; cumin; garam masala Sight: the ASL sign for "resist" Sound: MILCK, "Take Me to Church," Aedifice, Stray Sheep  Smell: Touch: a rough patch of skin; ointment; salve; jumping Extra: This is the year; "Don't make money for no reason."; “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.” ― Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography  Grateful for: freedom

Women's March on Washington , Jan. 21 My mom made me, my bed, my lunches, my 4-H club, my holiday dinners, my cookies, my laughter, my character...and my protest sign. We marched with more than 4 million women  — who took part in 670 events in 46 states and 30 countries around the globe on all seven continents including Antarctica —  for human rights, dignity, equity and justice . "It is our goal to provide the resources necessary for people to connect with one another, become accomplices, and work towards equity and social justice in this country." — Womxn's March on Seattle After the election I stood in my black velvet pantsuit and pink "Trample the Patriarchy" t-shirt and thought "Nothing will be trampled — except me." I thought of my friends with children especially those with girls. What would this mean for them? I called my mom. "I'm scared," she said. She was worried about Medicare and Social Security. My aunt...