Shel Graves' Sensorium

Taste: bitter Sight: bright glance; black poplars; brightness of the apples on the old scant-leaved boughs; lavender gingham and black ribbons Sound: fettle; deep song, Andalusian folk music, cante jondo Smell: fragrant apple Touch: chin pinched and cheek kissed Quotable: "A human being in this aged nation of ours is a very wonderful whole, the slow creation of long interchanging influences; and charm is a result of two such wholes, the one loving and the one loved." Extra: honourable; awe; fervour; "a sense that words were scantier than thoughts" A jolt of joy: the appearance of a dog Grateful for: home

Taste: olives Sight: purple Sound: laughed; laughing silently; a deep voice of assent Smell: vervain Touch: dragged into a dance; cambric embroidery Quotable:  "Dear ones, let's anoint this earth with dance!" — Hafiz "I suppose we never quite understand why another dislikes what we like," — Mary Garth in Middlemarch, George Eliot Extra:  "When the Beloved Asks: 'What Would You Do If You Woke Up and I Was a Shark?'" A jolt of joy:   uplift-looking up Grateful for: llamas; sunny winter skies; chocolate cake

Taste: cinnamon toast Sight: a loved one Sound: the bow of a violin; bird song Smell: the freshness of morning; cat feces Touch: a tingling at his finger ends Quotable:  " we all have damaging multiple worlds in us " — Marianne Boruch, Bestiary Dark; "the truth is the hardest missile one can be pelted with"; "That by desiring what is perfectly good, even when we don't quite know what it is and cannot do what we would, we are part of the divine power against evil—widening the skirts of light and making the struggle with darkness narrower...It is my life." — Dorothea Brooke, Middlemarch, George Eliot Extra: on the first day of spring I will draw a heart with catnip and scatter rose petals and gerbera daisies A jolt of joy: "For effective magic is transcendent in nature..."' "Oh, how happy!" Grateful for: squirrels, cushy chairs

Taste: chocolate cake and pillowy white frosting Sight: gleams on the wet grass; blue-green boudoir; pallid quaintness; avenue of elms Sound: thwarting; the divine voice; splash in the mud Smell: spilled pink medicine Touch: mug, twigs, dried leaves Quotable: "In the Reserve, I cleavered down hard/ to bite-site the carrots, silverbeets, sweet potatoes for/wallabies endangered, fed in/ "The Sanctuary" — ie: a sacred place." — What Doesn't Define Want? — Marianne Boruch Extra: young ardour; sombre fashion; vast desires; a dangerous young sprig, a Byronic hero A jolt of joy:  her blue compassionate eyes Grateful for: showing up

Taste: Kash, green, white foam, had on New Year's Sight: a dark-eyed creature; blue toenails Sound: heartbeat Smell: patchouli Touch: heartbeat; a bruise, sudden, indentation, inside of thigh Quotable: "our tongues are little triggers which have usually been pulled before general intentions can be brought to bear" Extra: rafting a river multiple times, detail; wading in, traveling a path, ever clearer with repetition; a taste in dream A jolt of joy: a pleasant dream, "Excellent, choice!" Grateful for: serenity; "You already are that glorious being."

Taste: snow peas and red peppers Sight: dense fog Sound: the dryer churning, rumbling Smell : sewage Touch: harp strings Quotable:  "'I remember them all', said Will, with the unspeakable content in his soul of feeling he was in the presence of a creature worthy to be perfectly loved."  “I know why you stare at the mountain’s beauty,/for she reminds you of something vital in your self./And natural desires to explore her heights are just/there to help you reach your own summit.” — Why You Stare at the Mountain, Hafiz  “Everyone has the ability. Everyone has the joy of trying everything more than once and learning it, practicing…It’s part of the creative spirit to say I am all things like my universe I was born into, I am universal, I am not monochromatic, I am all and everything…it happens to be the truth about all of us, and suffering comes to us when we believe otherwise.” — Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Mother Night Extra: a dream in which she says, “Shame!”; a dream i...

Taste: maple Sight: stray tortoise; a lunette opened in the wall of her prison Sound: theremin Smell: Rescue Touch: dangling Quotable: "a tortoise of desultory pursuits"; "It is the most horrible of virgin sacrifices." Extra: panic A jolt of joy: a play bow; a sweet unconstrained smile Grateful for: softness, contentment