Shel Graves' Sensorium

Buoyant floats through multicolored clouds. The denizens all have the power of flight. They float or take wing. The trees plant slender roots in the clouds. Vines grow from the clouds and spiral into the sky.  Visitors enjoy their time in the clouds. They eat sweet fluff as they come and go.  In Elation, the cloud farmland, cloud sugar grows. It’s spun into cloth and fed into engines where it turns to pink electricity, and, from there, into fluff foodstuffs. Denizens make fluff into bread and candy. They send it to other lands for their fairs and celebrations. However, the imported fluff does not taste near as sweet and light as it does in Buoyant.  “I can’t say why,” says Miss Emeline. "Outside of Buoyant, the fluff has an artificial flavor, recognizable as Buoyant Fluff only if one has never tasted the real stuff.”  Friendtopians love to visit Buoyant, work in the fields of Elation, and float amongst the clouds.

Taste: strawberries  Sound: eulogies and typewriters  Sight: yellow smoke, blue sky, green leaves  Touch: melting dogs; pillows; crawling into small spaces; kneeling stooping; going downstairs; carrying 15 pounds  Smell:   dogs snores and breaths; coffee grounds  Extra: as in a dream  Grateful for: greeting cards and mail

Happy grows fruit trees: peaches, apples, nectarines, pears, apricots, cherries, and plums. Deer roam the orchards eating dropped fruit. In the vast orchards, heavily laden trees bow. Denizens are fruitarians, lithe but well-fed. They make fruit salads, sauces, and crisps. They export dehydrated fruits and the most lovely jams. Oranges and lemons grow beneath solar domes.  “There was nothing but balmy weather and light rains the whole month of April,” says Miss Emeline.  Visitors come to Happy above the Citrus Seashore to pick fruit, make jam, and drink wine and cordials. They bring fruits home with them.  “It was so sweet,” says Miss Emeline. “A pleasant time. I also visited the capitol, Holiday, a lovely castle with sand-colored walls and turrets surrounded by an apple orchard and adjoined by the largest orangerie in the land.”  Deer and unicorns roam the orchard nibbling on fallen apples.  “In the castle one wears dresses made of dried peel and jewels of pol...

Shale Jittery slips and slides. Balanced on the top of a fault. Subject to earthquakes. Denizens are tense, quick to anger. Jittery has brittle, hard to follow, laws.  “They change so often people stop trying to obey them,” says the Guide.  Law enforcement enforces the ever-changing code.  “We live in peril!” a citizen tells Miss Emeline anonymously. “Everyone ends up in prison. No one in the court can keep track of the laws either.”  “It’s truly a mess,” says Miss Emeline. “The only relief is that punishments are light. The prisons are parks. I passed through quickly. No one stays long. It is too uncertain.”  “Although, I prefer tea. I will say I enjoyed the potent coffee there, however,” Miss Doe Friend says.  The guardhouse Discomfited sits atop Jittery. The border guard sits ready to warn Jittery of armies’ approach, earthquakes, or landslides. Everyday the Guard measures the fault line, which every day grows.  Armies do occasionally march into Jit...

Overflowing with flowers bright Gregarious attracts many visitors. Denizens grow and export flowers. In the fields, Gregarians laugh and sing as they busy their hands. At night, denizens wear flower crowns and eat petaled salads, slices of nut loaf, and lavender cakes. They load carts with flowers and journey to other lands. Children mist the flowers to keep them fresh. Other lands love the flower peddlers, so Gregarious stays well-supplied. They make perfume, too.  “We can always tell when the flower peddlers are coming rose, lotus, and peony scents precede them,” says the Guide of Peace.  Some shy lands do not welcome the talkative flower peddlers, but do not refuse them either. Gregarians sometimes leave flowers at the gates.  No flowers grow on the Hill of Shame.  Monks labor in silence digging up old bulbs with bowed heads.  "What caused this barren patch in the middle of plenty? Must they atone for some misdeed?" asks Miss Doe Friend, but receives no answe...

In Greed, animals plunder the streets for plentiful garbage. Half-eaten donuts and plates of unfinished hors d’oeuvres lie atop piles of trash. The factories of Greed churn out products. Its people earn more and more. They put things in their large solitary homes. They have just what they want and more. To each according to his means. Visitors come to Greed and apply for residence. They are admitted.  “We need workers to produce everything," says the Guide. The immigrant finds himself in a factory making stuff.  “There is nothing special about this land of excess,” advises Miss Emeline Traveler. “Seek inspiration in stunning, and simpler, places.”  Cawmen own the capitol Ravenous. They fly around Greed eating fallen bits of popcorn, candy, and peanuts. They shred garbage bags and look for leftover meals. Outside the shops, they peck in trash piles for greasy bits of paper, half-eaten doughnuts.  In the alleyways, they find remnants of dumped dinners and appetizers f...

Many layered rocks stack the mesas of Focused. From the windswept plateau, visitors gather to watch the sunrises and sunsets. They watch the wild horses run to the river Aware.  “Most amazing!” says Miss Emeline.  Rock climbers scale the sides. Scientists work in the rock laboratories sometimes peering out portholes in the rock. Artists colonies and writer’s dens inhabit the rock caves. Libraries lie within the stones. Volumes may be checked out one at a time for reading or read within the stone reading room where sun cascades through the glass rock.  Visitors come to Focused to accomplish a task. They stay until it is complete.  No one is permitted entry without purpose. They must apply and state the work they wish to do.  Most leave Focused with a feeling of accomplishment (rarely despair because they wouldn’t be here if they weren’t going to get it done).  Wild horses, and all manner of creatures, drink at the river Aware. Bats fly out of the caves of Aw...

Shapeshifters work magic in Excited. The land moves and morphs. Transient rainbows bridge valleys. Flocks of ibises, swans, and swallows circle. Predator rodents leap through the woods. Visitors explore abandoned castles.  "No one has the will to maintain them,” the Guide says. “We are always building anew.”  Architects design skyscrapers, monuments, space stations, and rockets. Builders erect fantastic plans. Many visit, but only the shapeshifters live here year round.  “Come and go as you will,” the Guide says. “Be sure to visit the Castle of Lost and Found.”  In their excitement, everyone leaves something behind. The capitol lies within Distracted, a series of islands, in the middle of a large river.  The shapeshifters often take marine mammal shapes and stay close to their river island homes. The river Distracted shifts course. The tides ebb and flow. The islands grow larger and smaller.  Bisian Flill tracks the shifting sands. They measure and cha...

A river flows through Bored’s open meadow where deer graze. Visitors cross the smallish desert with ease. Sparrows and minnows flit. The people go about their professions: farmer, builder, chef, and petty thief. Visitors walk along the grey sand beaches carrying thin towels and licking cones of vanilla ice.  Some paperwork is required for entry. Signs tell visitors where not to walk and where to put their trash.  “Always ask permission,” says the Guide.   There’s some traffic, but not much.  “The best part was the potato chips. Bored makes great potato chips,” says Miss Emeline Traveler.  Everyone eventually visits the seaside capitol Irritated. Staff work to pick up trash which was dropped on the ground and not in the proper receptacles and to sweep up the sand.  “It gets everywhere into everything!” says Amma-Pom They take long lunch breaks and suck saltwater taffy which is too salty and sticky. Tourists waddle with dripping ice cones. At dusk a ...

In Austere there is just enough of everything (although perhaps a little less than one would want). Everything fits in place just so. Each house has one tree in front of it (which provides fruit), one bush beside it (which provides berries) and a row of edible flowers along the windowsill.  Austerians walk to work at the center of town. Here they compute precisely what is needed and produce just that amount for the coming year. Meetings are short and end on time. It rains just enough for the grains to grow. People wear long sleeves and light rain jackets.   No one wants to visit Austere and the land does not invite them.  “We have no excess,” says the Guide. “Our motto: No more. No less.” The population remains steady. The average age is 87. In upper right corner of the square land of Austere, excess of anything gets stored in the capitol Sated. Ambassadors enjoy these pleasantries. They wallow in time. They don’t need much.  “Everything was strangely satisfyi...

Tough, impassible Resistance. Whatever you were trying to do, you find you cannot. Everyone gets blown about in the heavy winds of this rugged land. Trees fall. Denizens climb over limbs to get where they are going. They become quite agile though branches tear at their clothes and impede their way. Rumored treasures lie through the thick forest. “ "At this point, I’d be happy with something to eat,” says Miss Doe Friend. Resistance wears one down.  “I soon wanted something simpler,” Miss Emeline Traveler says.  Soldiers fight wars around the edges of Resistance but only humble travelers can traverse the thin paths which do not admit heavy armor much less armies.  Predators inhabit the woods, fearsome to those unaccustomed to Resistance.  The cottage Persistence made of frosted cookies sits in a clearing beside a stream at the center of the woods. It awaits those who fight their way through the woods. They’ll taste cool water and nibble sweet sugar and forget why they...

Many have climbed the steep and rocky mountains of Success and helped each other up the slopes. At the summit, they gaze over mountaintops and, unsatisfied, dream of climbing distant peaks. They look down and see the flowered valleys where herds of light stepping deer browse along forested paths. Denizens of Success work the trails leading up to the slopes. They place rocks and build stairs. They cut away branches, move fallen logs, and build bridges. All work together to make the ascents easier for those who come after them. On their name day, residents hike the trail named for them or climb the peak which inspired them. Each summer an elite band of climbers ascends the highest peak. It’s an honor to be named to that year’s crew. The climbers rename the peak.  “What do you call this peak?” visitors ask. They are told the season’s answer often mistaking it for a permanent name. It becomes confusing, but not to Successians who know Commitment peak no matter what name it’s given....

The trees of Retaliation have been chopped down and turned into fences. Denizens live on square fenced plots. Stone fences rise too and fences made of clay. Piles of trash mark other boundaries. Travel between fences requires paperwork and signatures so no one does it often and no one gets along.  “Somebody once asked me to do something difficult and now I ask that of others,” says T. Grimly.   “Do you remember who it was?” asks Miss Emeline Traveler. “No,” says Grimly. “Doesn’t matter.”  Once a man built a fence. Now a man builds one higher. Visitors once admitted become trapped.   “I can’t remember why I came either,” sighs Grimly.  It is easy to get into the country, if one avoids the main gate (and the paperwork). There are no borders between it and other lands which refuse to participate in Retaliation’s foolishness. But once one in Retaliation visitors tend to stay.  “Even I, an experienced Traveler, found it hard to extract myself,” say...

Denizens, burnished bright with sea-reflected sunlight, live on glass bottomed boats above the shallow sea Savor. Bright flags wave from their ships as they sail together. Visitors love the Savor sailors. They come and ride from port to port watching golden fish dart and miniature merpeople play, but only the Savorites stay forever upon the sea. Savories eat dried kelp in summer and a spicy kelp soup in winter.  To reach the capitol Delight one must dive underwater and pass through the portal. One becomes small and gains a fish tail.  "It was quite disorienting, especially for those of us with hooves," said Miss Doe Friend.  Delightians swim through the city and suck sweet water in through their gills.  "But to live in delight would be wonderful,” says Doe. Over time Delightians can no longer change back to upright forms. Some shrivel and become dull fish, while others transform into merfolk forever. Many elderly opt to spend their last days here. The merfolk sing ...

Peace provides sanctuary for all refugees — anyone who has suffered abuse at the hands of others. Peaceful acolytes care for those in need. They learn meditation and practice the ways of Peace. They learn about the worlds outside of Peace to better understand the people who come to them.  A World Bird guards Peace and takes the entire land under its wings in times of trouble. It feeds off the peaceberries that grow throughout the land. The denizens of Peace feast on peaceberry pie, drink peace berry tea, and pluck peace berries fresh from the vine with their mouths — and are comforted.  "Visitors to peace wish to stay, but may not be acolytes, says the Guide. "Only those born and raised in Peace, who thoroughly understand its ways, may do so. Unless, they are blessed by the World Bird." Forgiveness, a small island floats above Peace. A long arching golden pedestrian bridge crosses up to the capitol. Visitors travel a long way to reach Forgiveness. The floor of the bridge...

Climb the hills from the sunken lakes of Anticipation to view winding paths through wildflower filled valleys. Wondrous Anticipation promises much. Many visitors await entry.  “Untold beauty!” the Guide promises. “Expect something wonderful!”  Anticipation encourages migration. The capitol, Preparation, has a university, a college, a factory, a farm, a weather station, and a space station as well as watchtowers placed at strategic points all around.  “Internships are available,” says the Guide. “Although we encourage applicants to work abroad.”  Many become teachers. Serious students arrive at the University of Preparation. Few stay in Anticipation for they have grand plans.

Difficult to enter, no one speaks to visitors in Commanding who are greeted by an enormous gate whatever direction they arrive from. Walls surround Commanding. No one asks why you have arrived.  Soldiers wait in perched guard houses. Signs direct visitors with stern language. There’s paperwork to complete. It takes hours. No one answers questions. Take your best guess. Later, terse uniformed guards return the papers. They thrust them down upon desks and point at answers found wanting. The guards wear red and gold with high-collars and low helms.  You are but a petitioner in this place, and so, good luck.  Dull Commanding. Barren. Bleak. The land lacks distinguishing features. A dearth of flowers. Visitor queue front of the biggest gate Dismissed, where most guards live and patrol. Travelers queue for a chance to enter and glimpse the Commanding life. Some petitioners hope to gain permanent entry. Some wish to join the ranks of the gold-helmed guard. The lines stretch i...

Sharp stones line the cave Revenge where fanged creatures with small eyes claw and scrabble in the dark. Visitors stumble through and tear their arms and scrape their legs on sharp protrusions. Creatures bite to protect their homes. They can hardly see in the dim, but know the routes of their caverns intimately. They drink deep and catch sightless fish from the river Revenge which runs through the cave.  Visitors get lost, stumble, and some, hindered by sight, fall into the river to be swept away. The cave beast eats some. Others walk off the edge of the east passageway (the only one that leads to sunlight) and fall into the pit of spears.  The furnace Jealousy burns in the the cavern Revenge. Fire creatures whine and sing within the flame. Their speech sounds like crackling sparks. They say: "Mine and dear! Dear and mine! Your tasty meat!" Jealousy warms Revenge. Without the furnace, the caverns would grow cold and lifeless. The fire sprites of Jealousy make fire blown je...

Taste: sour  Sight:  yellow sky, red sun Sound: dogs’ snoring  Smell: smoke  Touch: being sniffed  Extra: “Well, the weather today is still dystopian hell scape.”  Grateful for: sleeping, snoring dogs in lap

Bleak Desolation, strewn with waste. Litter from other lands falls here. Scraps of paper, plastic bags, and empty soda cups. Meaningless objects are discarded, thrust upon Desolatians, symbolic of nothing. Desolatians live in compounds, sheltered from the nights’ winds of rotting garbage. In the morning, they organize the wind strewn trash into piles. She wears bits of napkin and foil. Their work requires constant reconnaissance searching for far flung scraps. They eat reheated canned foods delivered to them from the capitol Resigned. There’s no other food here.  Resigned is a cannery. Fresh foods from other lands are cooked, sorted, and stored in aluminum: corn, beans, tomatoes, peas, carrots depending on the time of the year. Resigned runs on a factory schedule. The whistle blows at 5 am for the first shift. Noon for the second. Eight for the night shift.   “They call themselves industrious and devoted, but perhaps they have little choice,” says Miss Emeline. ...

Blood runs cold in bare violence. Violence murders all living beings upon entering and calls itself righteous. Adventurers approach.  “I, I at last, can enter and exit unscathed,” thinks the hero.  He doesn’t want treasure or riches. He only wants to say he has done what no one else could. Perhaps he dreams of ruling it.  “They are deranged, these heroes. The land is poison,” says the Guide. “Once armies approached and died just within the borders. Blood soaked the land and spilled out of it for days.”  “Oh, monster land!” said Miss Emeline Traveler who has visited only the border. “It consumes all who come to it.”  “Were you not tempted?” asked her Great Auntie. "For there is no place that does not welcome you and your bravery and skill as a Traveler is unmatched." “No, Auntie, I believed," said Emeline. "Whether, it stretches its great maw up and swallows people whole or shreds them into bits, Violence kills. There’s no mystery to this place.”  The size o...

Shards fall from the sky over the glass land Destruction in hurricane season. The denizens, made of glass, often shatter. Workers shovel bits of glass into giant furnaces and remake people and buildings from the scraps. Workers reach tongs into the furnaces with wavering hands and arms that quickly grow limp. From the round bubbles of glass they blow lampposts, chairs, flowers, plates, baby carriages, canes, and replacement limbs.  "Everything breaks easily here and makes a satisfying shattering," says Miss Emeline Traveler. "No one depends on anyone or anything lasting."  Smash!, the favored sport, awards points for breaking things into the smallest bits. Visitors rarely come to this place. Only well-traveled folk who think they’ve seen it all are tempted. They return home soft skins slashed.  “It’s the most inhospitable place, I ever been!” says Sir Edward St. Chilliwack, the explorer.  Denizens of Destruction hurl bats at the glass tower Impulsive, which sits i...

Hallowed shells of buildings dot fallow Post-Apocalyptic. The sky rains ash and acid. Lightening jolts scar the land. The red orb sun offers jaundiced radioactive light. The dying denizens wear rags covered in acidic dust. “It used to be different,” they say telling stories of what once was as they wander searching for dry food.  Angry animals lunge at each other. Birds screech. Fish hide at the bottom of mud pools. Everyone shivers in the night.  “Take shelter if you can find it in the underground caves,” the Guide advises. “The denizens are not as dangerous as they appear. They are too weary to fight." Visitors journey to the capitol End Times, a place of prophecies. In the End Times caves, the nomads find fresh water dripping off the walls. They eat algae and phosphorescent mushrooms.  “No one will live to see much more,” the prophet says. “This is how the world finally comes to an end.” Wanderers come to End Times palms up asking for readings.  “You are hop...

Tiny fish-tailed people live amongst the fishes and water sprites in the placid mountain lake Serene. They peacefully harvest their algae fields and live in the bubbles below the lake, but cause mischief with boaters and fishermen whom they hate. Young ones quest from one end of the lake to the other. Visitors come to Serene to watch its smooth surface and meditate. They stay in cottages beside the lake. Some take tiny bottles of lake water home with them. Most do not swim in the waters.  “We prefer to keep the lake’s surface undisturbed. Boating and fishing is prohibited. The lake’s waters are also extremely cold coming from the Serenity Glacier,” says the Guide. "Exceptions are made for Contemplation." The Boat Contemplation glides along the lake surface without a ripple. No one knows the source of its power and movement. The long fat-bottomed boat moves without captain or crew. Visitors to Serene ride Contemplation from the cottages at either end.  “It cleared m...

  Taste: tart raspberry and tangerine popsicles  Smell: smoke  Sight: framed art works; a comforting image  Touch: popsicle tongue  Sound: happy snacky Extra: an anxiety dream about training whales, training a brown shark which approaches, Chance enters the water and does not swim, sinks, trying to get to the shark two dangers, I pull him up and out and get him to safety with Sam. I have left Lily and Tish, return to rescue me and a third Cavalier follows me (who?), I find Lily and Tish gone, a moment of panic, I have lost them, and then I find them down the beach cliffside a bit, Lily is right at the edge, I get her in time and realize she was right at the edge and then get Tish, too  Grateful for: Lily and Tish; playfulness; and a carpet shampooer

Prone to earthquakes and disasters adventurers come in droves to the jagged peaks of Uncontrolled. They fall into crevasses. They rescue animals from rising waters. They carry packs filled with water, knives, rope, and well-preserved food. The denizens of Uncontrolled, sad and sloe-eyed, work to rebuild their homes again.  “We enjoy living on the edge of the world,” says the Guide.   “I’d be bored if my life was not at risk, if I did not need jugs of water and canned food,” says Uncontrolled denizen Mike Potter.  The Uncontrolled come together when disaster strikes, but otherwise ignore their neighbors.  The capitol Impulsive shines on the shore nearly invisible except for its shimmer. The denizens are translucent until the moment they take action when they become opaque. They never plan, but act quickly upon ideas. In this way, they create art and lasting monuments. They are terrible diplomats.  No visas are available to Uncontrolled. Supplicants come to...

Known for its stunning glaciers, waterfalls, fields of flowers and turquoise lakes Meditative invites visitors while its population remains small. It has long sandy beaches and small islands.  “The air smells of jasmine, lilac, lotus, and hyacinth,” says Miss Doe Friend. She sighs with delight.  The Queen of the Day of Meditative wears a many-petaled lotus hat. The denizens of Meditative play singing bowls and bells. They chant in the morning, afternoon, and evening. They walk mandalas and labyrinths. Purple heather blooms.  “One day, you come to discover, The Queen of Meditative, is you,” says Miss Emeline Traveler.  The glacier Compassion melts and fills the turquoise lake and the smaller green ones. Sometimes the snow bridges break and the waterfall swells. Water rushes to Meditative and every flower blooms. Sprites swim in melted Compassion and sing. Each colony of sprites adopts a denizen of Meditative and gives them beautiful visions.  “Our minds fill wi...

Pastel clouds puff through beautiful Dreamland where vivid creatures run. All denizens can fly — not only winged unicorns and fairies. Dreamland castles float in air. Willow trees drop sherbet colored leaves. At dusk, Dreamland comes alive with frog song and fairy festival. Everyone visits Dreamland in their sleep. Some ride gently on boats in its winding rivers. Others dock at the ferry and come shore and have adventures. Visitors take bits of Dreamland fluff home with them. Artists spin these into tapestries, paintings, theatre, and story. Engineers turn them into wondrous inventions. Scientists use the fluff to cure diseases.  “It’s extremely valuable,” says Miss Emeline Traveler. “The most precious substance ever encountered.”  “It’s our mission to make dreams real,” says the Guide. “For our future depends upon Dreamland.”  The Castle Surreal floats above. It has infinite towers, entrances, arched doors, and stairways. Moats swim up the Surreal sides and alligators ...

The varied terrain of Accepting welcomes all to its shores. One of the largest lands, it includes forests, plains, grasslands, mountains, and beaches. It grows many fruits, nuts, and vegetables. Vast herds of deer, sheep, gazelle, and elephant roam the plains. It has mild weather of all types: wind, rain, and snow. As such it has six seasons. Many choose to live here: Peasants work the land. Merchants bring items from other lands to Acceptance. Thinkers make laws and export philosophies to help other lands emulate happy Acceptance. They build temples and shrines in homage to deities and form Cults of Compassion. Many gods, fairies, and wish-granting jinn live here and dwarves, elves, and giants live peaceably alongside centaurs and scorpions. Brownies do much of the work in the night and accept cookies as reward. “Creatures who have been shunned or feared in other lands come here,” says the Guide. “Visitors to Acceptance may be surprised to find them, but show acceptance or are ...

Gifted grows profuse delights and shares its wealth. Many visitors arrive to eat the fruits of Gifted, smell its flowers, roam the lands, converse with the animals, and swim with the fishes. Gems sparkle in Gifted lying on the surface for all to see. Crafters make trinkets given as souvenirs, though they fade some when they leave the land. Many visitors return frequently.   “At each meal they serve thickly frosted cake,” says Miss Emeline Traveler. “The scent is delightful. The flowers are sweet and edible.”  The generous denizens of Gifted make beautiful dresses, hats, skirts, handbags, and fun fashions. Artisans craft vases to display the flowers. They travel to other lands to teach their crafts.  The most renowned are:  Violet Montmaker the Vasemaker  Pello Trantui the Flower Arranger  Wila Moran the Hat Maker Rupilliar Monx the Dress Maker  Whereas all may roam Gift, visitors need an invitation to Castle Favored to receive audience with the f...

Windstorms spiral through the red-gold desert Ire sweeping up any life in their way. The denizens of Ire are nomadic imps or giants. They scavenge windswept bones. Visitors come to Ire as flashes of light. The denizens see them as hallucinations. They imagine they see Irate Demons.  “The Irate Demons wear capes of dried cactus and carry the blackened bones of vultures,” says the Guide.  Fires sweep over Irate and crisps the bodies of imps and blackens the knees of giants. Fire-snakes survive the flames and fill the Rude capitol of Ire, beautiful but poisonous and quick to strike. They writhe from underground burrows and slide over black sands hardened to glass by fire. Red sands burn in the sun.  The Rude Snakes horde a deep well of water frightening thirsty visitors away. They slither, hiss, and rattle constantly for fear of being smashed by giants. The giants stomp away afraid of the snakes’ poison which is strong enough to fell them.  Once upon a time, a the fa...

Float the river rapids of Agitation. Boats bobble. Fish leap. Mothers clasp their babies above the waves. Slick bodies fall in to be dashed upon the rocks or saved and raised by benevolent fish. This is how mermaids are born. The denizens of Agitation spend their entire lives journeying downstream. The end of life is ocean. Deep purple and dark green rocks fill the river of Agitation. Mossy trees overhang the river. The denizens see much within their short lives but have difficulty remembering each bend in the river. They cannot tell visitors where to go. They do not remember. They cannot pass knowledge to the next generation. The luckiest ones are raised by fish. The fish see all below the depths. They could avoid the rapids and falls, but choose to play in them.  When visitors arrive, “Go home! Go home!” the fishes cry. “This is no place for you. You’ll never find peace.”  The visitors seek the shore. They go to the inlet Placid, a pool along the river. Most of the waters ...

Land of Beauty, land of light, the light plays in raindrops, shines in morning, dims in afternoon, and fades to dusk. Soft pink Beauty and bright orange Beauty walk beside each other. The denizens wear dresses of peach and pale blue, though often they wear only light. They watch the light. They wait for certain casts of it to paint and discuss. They walk slowly on their way watching the light fall on puddles and ponds. While light-watching they eat the abundant red and blue Glow Berries. Deer step slowly through cascades of light and eat slowly from the Glow Berries admiring the fall of light upon the red and blue orbs. The light captivates visitors to Beauty.  "Enchanted," they say. Enchanted, they stay. They walk the rainbow paths. The light shimmers and strums.  In the cave of Indifference, workers in the capitol mine gold, silver, platinum and gems from the shadows. Beauty cleans, cuts and polishes the stones.  "That’s all the citizens of Beauty are good for,” say...