Shel Graves' Sensorium

Taste: anise/absinthe, Pacifique Absinthe made in Woodinville Sight: granny sitting in the little red sidecar; unhealthy appearances: the gray cast to her anemic skin, her yellow skin and eyes showing liver damage; twisted blooming heart trees, artist James W. Sutherland Touch: dancing knees Sound: wetland frogs, bare feet pad across linoleum Smell: anise-licorice-absinthe Extra: noesis, noesis — thinking about thinking; Do you remember when we saw the Buddha on the beach? Sympatico.

Taste: bitter, sweet, sour, salty celery Sight: the arch of the harp and her fingers plucking across it; seven long bright orange carrots in a bunch with wavy green tops, on top a yellow pepper; a pure white long-haired Borzoi with a harp-shaped muzzle Touch: dancing with arms held in a harp shape Sound: harps and harmony — "Jellyfish" by Elizabeth Markell, the small women's choir of voices Smell: fermented soy and eggs; cheap Tinkerbell nail polish sweet-scented poison; the yoga man smells like coconut oil Extra: shooting through the air like a rocket, spotting collies on the farmland below; letting go: flight instead of fight; ekstasis — stepping out of the norm (and the human need to do so on occasion); "Attention!", Aldous Huxley's Island

Taste: orange lemon honey mango Sight: air so dense as to make shadows, wisps of heat rising, orange; beet red; my toes touching the sky Touch: muslin face, my face feels like muslin; the splits, the lower back Sound: a dulcet voice issuing directions Smell: wet plastic; roasting salt, oil sweet beets, carrots, and squash Extra: to able to do the splits and touch my toes; unable to sing

Taste: sweet cider, creamed corn, tart wheat light amber hops, strong sweet hops made by Westmalle Tripel, Lindemans Cuvee Rene Oude Gueuze: sour vinegar and apple, molasses imperial Samuel Smith stout — a flight of beer a flight of beer from Yorkshire, Flanders, Barvaria at BaleFire ; jammy wine Sight: three undulate in a circle suspended in air: blue, two move in unity in a circle suspended in air: yellow; one dances inside a circle which flows over the floor suspending her: pink; a pink boa; strongmen lift each other and a strobing flashing cube — Cirque Sublime Touch: sitting on a plump couch Sound: Chairlift, "Bruises," Does You Inspire You ; Tool, "Sober," Undertow Smell: dust burning — a disused heater Extra: drinkable books — the wines made from unusual grapes are "...like drinking your favorite book." in Neal Stephenson's Anathem

Taste: green avocado; turnip-y, carrot-y water chestnut, crunchy sunchokes; chocolate lava cake Sight: black and red beribboned Demonia shoes; fist-sized Thumbelina carrots Touch: rounded warty sunchokes Sound: British theologian Karen Armstrong defending her views on religion in an interview, "It's not just a bee in my own bonnet. I've been studying this for 20 years." Smell: sweet, floral perfume on a passersby; the absence of Extra: the red skirt with the shiny tulip-shaped pattern; the wall across the waves; the tide coming in off the lake; Alicen does yoga; reincarnation as a dolphin: an aquatic, auditory, emotional, highly-sexual being with a 10 million year old spherical brain; growing rosemary and cilantro in the side garden; "It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much — the wheel, N...

Taste: Pear vodka in the Kyoto Blossom martini; monosodium glutamate is a neurotransmitter; pineapple guava-a small sweet round pear; soft, subtle, woodsy spice, faintly sweet, evocative of squirrels, elves, dryads: cinnamon; grilled butter; mango liqueur; absinthe a distillation of: anise, curry and cinnamon; Carmelita Touch: hot sliding beads of metal like a snake; tight, hamstrung muscles, after running eight miles and dancing all night; rolling relaxation, the rapid flow of the gyroscope, steady flow of the waves, and mirage-like memory of feeling the flow and tilt of the waves when on the land again like a light, lucid drunk; the lift and rise of the boat; my body alone floating in the sea; my husband's hand; a gentle face massage, light fingertips to forehead Sight: a fey gothic boy; dimpled flesh twisting in yoga poses; sparks and flame; an athletic 25-year-old man somersaults naked every morning on the trampoline; a blue and white lit weeping tree adorned with paper wis...

Taste: food eaten at the Camlann Medieval Fair : cinnamon spiced cherries and beans flavored with an anise gravy; and on ordinary days cilantro Touch: my foot tucked comfortably into the crevasse of my knee and thigh; silky, the taller dog's head, Story, is softer than all others Sight: traditionalist colors: burgundy, forest green, walnut, cream, and the matching russet, black and white dog with dewy eyes, erect ears, attentive posture like a painting; a yoga studio's cathedral ceiling; dancing boy hips, straight lines becoming suggestive waves Smell: blooms of ground chocolate as if it is growing in the air, Theo Chocolate ; sweet, floral - jasmine, lilies? my mother's silk dresses, Oscar de la Renta draped down an empty hallway; The grocery store aisles evoke memories of the orchard rows, the filled bushels, the cider press, the murky gallons. It's time to eat apples.; calming, sensual pine massage oil disconcertingly on the dog's head; burnt sage to purify a...