Shel Graves' Sensorium

My stave catches this windless October Eagle hunting the last, doomed sardines Snow leopard taste: the last tin of sardines WWF-Snow Leopard Snow leopard sight: "Black figures on the sky, a doomsday sun, the blaring ice, and this dark bounding thing..." Snow leopard sound: a cry of warning; whistles downward Snow leopard touch: warmth and windlessness Snow leopard word of the day: carom Snow leopard notable: "Today is the last day of October." Snow leopard extra: the great black eagle Snow leopard gratitude: my stave comes to my rescue Panthera progress: Rudyard Kipling and Edgar Burroughs What is this? Blogging The Snow Leopard project .

Black tarn, blue sheep : "Be light, light, light—full of light!" Soen Roshi says Dance of Life Soen Nakagawa Roshi Snow leopard taste: onion Snow leopard sight: night shadow Snow leopard sound: spell of silence; ringing earth Snow leopard smell: onion reek Snow leopard touch: bitter cold Snow leopard word of the day: being Snow leopard quote of the day: "the tension between light and dark is the power of the universe" Snow leopard notable: Soen Roshi's last word — dream Snow leopard extra: high-altitude irritability Snow leopard gratitude: a luminescent dream Panthera progress: Panthera pardus What is this? Blogging The Snow Leopard project .

Relinquishing angry lentils in the Land of B'od, for you oh, my darling Snow leopard taste: salt sweat Snow leopard sight: misted footprints ; hallucinating whiteness Snow leopard sound: wailing with lost love in the snow mountains Snow leopard touch: blazing slush; thin air ; 60 pounds of lentils Snow leopard quote of the day: "My anger is wasting energy I badly need, and realizing this, it is easy to put aside." Snow leopard notable: Tibet is the highest country in the world Snow leopard extra: "Simultaneously, I am myself, the child I was, the old man I will be." Snow leopard gratitude: bathed by feeling, childlike Panthera progress: moving on What is this? Blogging The Snow Leopard project .

Today marks 30 days of blogging The Snow Leopard (1978). I didn't expect to continue to blog my own senses during this project, but, delightfully, while paying closer attention to each day of The Snow Leopard I have become more observant of my own surroundings as well and it's fun to compare and contrast my own senses alongside what is happening on Matthiessen's 1973 journey in the Himalaya. In most blog entries, I've managed to include an "at home" element. I continue to get up at 5 a.m. every day to work on my novel-in-progress Panthera — here marks 60 days of writing every day including those heretofore elusive Sundays. Some days I do not accomplish much, but show up to the page. I have about a month left to get to complete a draft (a self-imposed goal of Dec. 1). But like Matthiessen, I am plagued with worries about my progress. There is only so much I can do to hurry the porters (muses) over the mountain pass. I was pleased to discover that Mr. Ma...

A fine scholar drinks hot tea and despairs, "We have come too far to quit!" An influential dog leaps up and exclaims, "It is easy to live in the future. Welcome!" Snow leopard taste: tea and tsampa At home: pumpkin butter-nutmeg, allspice Seven months' trek through Tibet, 1956 Orchard Press, Antique Collector's Club Snow leopard sight: blue sheep and sign of snow leopard ; dark clouds drifting on the mountains At home: the dog bares her tummy; daybreak Snow leopard smell: human dung At home: aquarium store, age 8 Snow leopard sound: hiss of swift torrent under ice At home: "Welcome to the future!" ; rain rattling through gutters Snow leopard touch: breaking trail, plunging through snow crust At home: dog leaping into lap Snow leopard word of the day: bollixed Snow leopard quote of the day: "Despite the hard day that has ended in defeat...I feel at peace among these looming rocks, the cloud swirl and the wind-whirled snow, as...

Finding acceptance in a forbidden land of ice water and avalanches Snow leopard taste: bitter rice, course flour, lentils, onlons and potatoes Yeti hairs are goral, cryptomundo.com Goral, Rajaji National Park @ AJT Johnsingh Snow leopard sight: in near-darkness gray finches forage in gray snow Snow leopard sound: small avalanches resound-cavernous deep thunder like an echo of the roaring of creation Snow leopard touch: frigid water, numb-legged Snow leopard quote of the day: "Yet I feel calm, and ready to accept whatever comes, and therefore happy." Snow leopard extra: happy go-lucky spirit Snow leopard gratitude: a deep trust in life Panthera progress: plodding What is this? Blogging The Snow Leopard project .

Panthera Unica gasps: nowhere common, wary and elusive to a magical degree Snow leopard sight: nine figures round the point of rock in silhouette Snow leopard sound: gasping for breath ; chattering, laughing voices; a ringing silence in the silence Snow leopard smell: juniper and rose Snow leopard touch: light fingertips to upper leg Snow leopard word of the day: lung-gom — Tantric discipline of wind-concentration Snow leopard quote of the day: "By firelight, we talk about the snow leopard." Snow leopard notable: leopard scat ; Milarepa transformed into a snow leopard at Lachi-Kang Snow leopard extra: gloomy and restless Snow leopard gratitude: pale frosty eyes, misty gray coat, black rosettes, rich fur - snow leopard Panthera progress: still in snow leopard scenes What is this? Blogging The Snow Leopard project .