Shel Graves' Sensorium

Taste: bottled water; avocado and lime  Sound:  dripping Smell: yellow-cedar  Sight:  creek and petals; cherry blossoms, plum blossoms, pink and white Touch:  pressing the coffee pot, pouring the coffee pot, spilling the coffee Intellect, ideas, and dreams: neon pink fish, crabs; I dreamt of neon pink fishes; remember your shape Grateful for: water

Taste: aloo gobi  Sound: let the river run; singing to animals; movement; pelting Smell: forest; rose Sight: Bull Kelp; birds moving under leaves; a full river Touch: a rope leash; drenched in rain  Intellect, ideas, and dreams: solarpunk, afrofuturism; inhospitable freeways Grateful for: light and silence; safety

Taste: raspberries Sound: rainfall Smell: rose Sight: raccoons; grey clouds; cosmos; daffodil; crocus; purple; white Touch: dipping fingers into water Intellect, ideas, and dreams: What is your magic power, and are you using it?; waiting Grateful for: flowers

Taste: salmonberry-sweet, tart, and strange, alkaline Sound: boiling kettle Smell: ashy Sight: rubus spectabilis-red sight worth seeing’; Swainson’s thrush; soft eyes, happy eyes Touch: a round head Intellect, ideas, and dreams: five minutes Grateful for: expressions of love

March 22: The Emperor-Cats- firm voice of reason in times of chaos, unfinished business; #53 Don’t vacillate. Taste: cashew cheese Sound: running water Smell: spring air Sight: flickering candle flame; magenta petals Touch: his weight Intellect, ideas, and dreams: five minutes Grateful for: calming breath

Taste: vegan queso Sound: kirtan chanting Smell: cherry blossoms Sight: delicate white cherry blossoms, yellow stamens; waddling possums Touch: f lakey, itchy Intellect, ideas, and dreams: Wolf and Raven; poem structures Grateful for: sleep, dreams

Taste: pine Sound: construction, trucks, hammering; trilling birds; sniffing Smell:  roasting potatoes Sight: bright  yellow-green Strega; cattails; flattened reeds; t he tree of crows in the wetland, snake; twitching noses and whiskers; grey sky Touch: misty rain, dampened fur Intellect, ideas, and dreams: being observant; mendicant  Grateful for:  Sitka Black-Tailed Deer; Lily, Tish, Mary Shelley, Sam; the servers, the cooks

Taste: tomato Sound: eating grass Smell: spice Sight: crows in tree tops - vertical space; horizons, sea, blue, white, horizontal space Touch: sun-warmed fur Intellect, ideas, and dreams: confidence, optimism; forest bathing Grateful for: Sam, Sarah, Bonnie, Beverly, my cohort, Aimee

Taste:  potatoes, peas, and gravy Sound: Loowit  Smell:  jasmine Sight:  snow-capped mountain tops; tail wags; cows lounging in the field Touch: being licked and licking Intellect, ideas, and dreams: shunyata-openness; “A single Fireweed plant can produce eight thousand seeds!”— Cascadia Field Guide ; contentment Grateful for: contentment

Taste: raspberry and blackberry pie Sound: running water; grunting; snoring Smell: hyacinth Sight: forest floor; tucked tail; unfurled tail Touch: smooth belly; prickliness Intellect, ideas, and dreams: poetry Grateful for: pie; the rising run

Taste: vanilla creme; curry Sound: owls, raptors, gliding; kitty lapping water Smell: smoke Sight: forests, dark forests, darkness; a drowsy dog Touch: lichen, moss, algae, fungus Intellect, ideas, and dreams: love and forests; missing papa; to the celestial mountain; abandoned makeup; extremophile -an organism who lives in microscopic spaces Grateful for: auntie, mama, a dog settled into a chew

Taste: salt, broth Sound: birdsong  Smell: smoky  Sight: green  Touch: shedding fur  Intellect, ideas, and dreams: buildings tumbling, tragedy  Grateful for: Aimee, Bonnie, Paige -people’s appreciation

Taste: nutty green tea Sound: the heater turns on; silence; purring Smell: green tea Sight: spruce Touch: mosses; bunting Intellect, ideas, and dreams: Cascadia Field Guide; impatience Grateful for: contemplation

Taste: chestnuts Sound: chimes Smell: clove Sight: six deer in a pasture; a wet spiral nose; yellow Touch: smooth Intellect, ideas, and dreams: looking up into the sky, self-righteousness; humbled Grateful for: volunteers; the sky; deer

Taste: black olives; tangy Sound: birdsong  Smell: incense; fog  Sight: moss, green, flowing water, ripples, ferns  Touch: ferns, moss, coolness  Intellect, ideas, and dreams: speculative biology  Grateful for: darkness, night, sleep

Taste:  potato Sound:  snuffling Smell:  lemon balm, rose, and lavender Sight:  two geese flying side by side; purple velvet pink light brightening to yellow Touch:  a soft, round head Intellect, ideas, and dreams:  asking for inspiration; jealousy; How immediately my skills will be put into practice. They are always leaving.  Grateful for: sunrises, sunsets, and a full moon, the sky

Taste: garlic naan Sound: a small airplane overhead Smell: the grass, the dew, the shrubs Sight: the rising sun, the low worm moon-the last full moon of the winter, the dog park Touch: cold, chill, damp Intellect, ideas, and dreams: local parks Grateful for: aunties

Taste: vegan chocolate cake; peanut curry soup Sound: old time fiddle; guitar Smell: cake Sight: vials of blood; a full bird feeder; hawks; ivy; peanut shells Touch: the open pages of a book Intellect, ideas, and dreams: the Buddha families - Padma-Amitabha, Karma-Amoghasiddhi Grateful for: poetry and poets

Taste: onions Sound: crunching Smell: herbal incense Sight: carrots with the greens attached; active squirrels and robins; pale green buds on branches and ivy--new growth; pink and pale blue morning sky Touch: kissing Intellect, ideas, and dreams: the dream haunted house; missing the boat-forgetting about an important, expensive commitment with once in a lifetime opportunities’ Pema Chödrön’s Compassion Cards; Tarot if Mystical Moments Grateful for: kisses

Taste:  coconut curry Sound:  snoring, snorting, snuffling Smell: candle flame and smoke, extinguished Sight: hawks, falcons, and kestrels; mule deer; frost Touch:  Fog. Mist. Dew. All the forms of water. ; frost Intellect, ideas, and dreams: alaya-vijnana, storehouse consciousness; All the lost dogs. All the lost cats. All the lost animals. All the lost people. Are you lost? Do you know where your home is?; Conflict. I just wanted to be helpful. I’m just a volunteer.  Grateful for: volunteers, Lily, Tish, Sam, Mary Shelley; abundance, kindness, kinship

Taste:  banana muffin Sound:  barking, howling Smell:  pine Sight:  The men who are homeless with hoodies and backpacks and nowhere to sit but the recycled bins in the alley. Touch:  being submerged; slippery snow Extra:  a powerful shape; loneliness Grateful for:  grace under pressure

Taste:  ramen Sound:  keys clacking Smell: lavender Sight: grey sky Touch: earthquake; granite Extra: nitrous, procedures, being a patient Grateful for: the Compassion Consortium

Taste:   biscuits and gravy; pepper; chickpeas Sound:  Chef Amy and her laughter; laughter Smell:  savory cooking; flavorful broth S ight:  the trees T ouch:  Lily's ears Extra:  perseverance and presence Grateful for: nooch

Taste: lime Sound: wind Smell: candles Sight: snowfall, enormous flakes which do not stick; evergreen trees; snow-capped mountains, pink light; candlelight Touch: slippery pavement; warmth Extra: despair, imprisonment; t-cell lymphoma; a charlatan Grateful for:  donkeys, Puzzle the donkey