Shel Graves' Sensorium

Taste: white toast with butter Sight : bright plumage; red fire Touch: snow Sound: cheerful note; like an organ when the bellows are let drop; sonorousness; gently audible movement-fire Smell: toast Quotable:   "It is December and we must be brave...The streetlamp beckons the lonely/coyote wandering West 29th Street/by offering its long wrist of light./The coyote answers by lifting its head/and crying stars." — Manhattan Is a Lenape Word, Postcolonial Love Poems, Natalie Diaz Extra: a well of affectionate gratitude A jolt of joy: merriment Grateful for: cozy days at home, dog on lap, book in lap

Taste: cinnamon, caramel, banana, salt Sight: sombre light; round-eyed, sharp little woman, like a tamed falcon; Forget-me-nots under the water Touch: throwing off her bonnet and gloves; wide corridors Sound: chime; Hallelujah Smell: the scent of rose-leaves everywhere Quotable: "the elegant leisure of a young lady's mind"; "That moment of naturalness was the crystallizing feather-touch: it shook flirtation into love."  Extra: nectareous, nectarean; warm-hearted and rash; a Christmas miracle A jolt of joy: "The right word is always a power" Grateful for: libraries

I started off the year reading a lot of poetry and ended the year reading mysteries, and for the first time in awhile, a mystery series, one book after the other. I marveled at how Andy Weir repeated and even surpassed his gripping success with The Martian in Project Hail Mary. But the book I was obsessed with this year was Tomorrow by Damian Dibben: Excellent. Some similar themes to vampire novels, the role of death in life, what it would mean to be immortal, but without the blood and feeding. Strong characters. Loved the portrayal of the dog protagonist: wise, loyal, doggy, but not silly or a caricature. Loved the 19th century setting.  I loved the theme: "' Tomorrow we begin again ,' he'd say, sometimes over a trivial thing, a burnt dinner, our coach getting stuck in the mud, but other times, uttered in defiance, a call to hope, when something had shaken us to our cores."    And I loved the dog protagonist: "'Well, you have your four-legged companion ...

Because life is sweeter when the senses receive our attention in daily life. I've reviewed my Sensorium posts over the past year and here's the Best of 2021....  Taste: cinnamon rolls; mango lime tanjin; avocado toast with olive oil and nigella seeds; vampire’s feast; Sagrantino Sight:  The Folio Society edition of Middlemarch, a gorgeous shiny spring green, caslon font, white space, creamy pages; valleys with wonderful modulations of light and shadow  Touch: the heft of a book; petals; mossy stone  Sound: Zoë Keating Into the Trees, Escape Artist, Optimist; thump, thump, thump; snoozles  Smell: Vixen , For Strange Women -- woods, black pepper, coffee, ambrette; Black Forest --four varieties of fir trees Extra: imaginal cells; St Roch Patron St. of Dogs; "the ghostly stag in a pale fantastic world"; reading in a well-tended garden on a sunny summer afternoon before a wedding party Story ideas:  the dogs of Middlemarch: Monk, Fly, Brownie, Fag; a solar...

Because life is sweeter when the senses receive our attention in daily life. Even when they are notably unpleasant they may be worthy of poetry. I've reviewed my Sensorium posts over the past year and here's the Worst of 2021.... Taste: mezcal, smoke; stinging salt Sight: emaciated hips; a death’s head skinned over Touch: dead bird head pulled from the jaws of a small dog—slimy, crunchy; broken Sound: shrieking—like a hawk came down upon her Smell: possum feces  Quotable: "It is an uneasy lot at best...to be present at this great spectacle of life and never to be liberated from a small hungry shivering self..." — George Eliot, Middlemarch  Extra: grief, anxiety, exhaustion; when the woman who sleeps in her car gives you a Christmas present

Taste: stinging salt Sight: a bud enfolded by a calyx; hands clasped Touch: fizzy, tingly Sound: lapping; gasping for breath; sobbing; clasped Smell: popcorn Extra: an electric blue and pink cat; a noble creature; unspeakable sorrow A jolt of joy: under covers Grateful for: rescues

Taste: avocado toast with nigella seeds; high quality olive oil Sight: a forest within a city; little eyes peeping Touch: flying; swampy ground; timorous lips Sound: wings; fluttering; pleased surprise Smell: mace, nutmeg Quotable: "It is an uneasy lot at best...to be present at this great spectacle of life and never to be liberated from a small hungry shivering self..." Extra: "an enthusiastic soul" A jolt of joy: discovery park Grateful for:  walks with Sam

Taste: apple brandy Sight: a half-opened blush rose; watchful blue eyes; blind and unconcerned as a jelly-fish; ghostly blue-green world; stag in the tapestry Touch: the top of her head; snow Sound: snuffle; snoozles; quiet staccato Smell: apple brandy Quotable: "the ghostly stag in a pale fantastic world" Extra: "a shaping activity" A jolt of joy: snuffling; a dog appears in a story; a high roll; snoozles Grateful for: encircled

Taste: brandy Sight: imploring penitence; languid eye and ruffled plumage Touch: lightness; petting; soft head Sound: truckle Smell: peppermint Quotable: "I don't want to say anything," said Mary, more quietly. "My anger is of no use."; "Let the high Muse chant loves Olympian: We are but mortals, and must sing of man."--Theocritus, Greek poet Extra : protecting my dogs from an owl in the trees, in the woods-a blessing and a danger; the woman who sleeps in her car gives you a Christmas present; a festival for her tenderness A jolt of joy: spotting wildlife, an owl in a treetop Grateful for: game night with good friends

Taste: cayenne pepper; chili powder; mulled wine; "a very fine wine sustains a flavour of skin" Touch: pinching an apple-puff Sight: algae; curly-haired Sound: shrill; agreeable contralto Smell: goat; "the attic which smelt deliciously of apples and quinces" A jolt of joy: maple bar Grateful for: coffee and doughnuts