Shel Graves' Sensorium

Taste:  nutmeg, peas, cayenne pepper Sight:  plush garnet and onyx velvet Sound:  dice fall Smell:  piss Touch: oppressive heat, weighty heat Extra: dark curly hair, black glasses, clumsy white hands, an unplaceable foreign accent, studying to be an astronaut, running marathons, a vegetarian wife learning Vietnamese cooking; a dreamscape -- a festival memento mori ? death but something undefinable, a maze of art filled with visual puzzles - black red, beige, the room of zombies and a bar that eats you; you are quickly lost, won't find your way out, every room looks different when you come back the way you went Grateful for: sleep

Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers edited by Sarena Ulibarri out from World Weaver Press It's tough to be an optimist. In general. These days. As a writer. Definitely, as a writer. Dystopia checks all the boxes: High stakes.  Rising tension.  Character arc.  Plot.  A utopia is just — better. From somebody's point of view. So, boring? It doesn't have to be. Please, don't give up. Because, living in a dystopia? No thanks. No!! We need to imagine utopias (optimistic futures) — many. We need them. "...if you can’t imagine something, you sure as hell can’t make it real."  — Commando Jugendstil and the EV Studio  on the World Weaver Press Blog I began writing in earnest driven by: Memento mori.  Utopian impulse. I started alone and then found community — from feminist utopias to optimistic science fiction to solarpunk. Utopia: which makes new rules. ...optimism is way punk. Not that we will emerge from catastrophic dystop...

Taste:  oregano oil; saffron; lavender; bergamot; coconut Sight: floating cottonwood floof Sound: chittering, moaning, whining, shrieking, one solid bark, a big dog bark Smell:  disinfectant; peppermint Touch:  webbing; sticky, stringy, faint cobwebs Extra: a cow's 10 year birthday Grateful for: Pasado's Safe Haven

Taste: Reign in Blood; turmeric-coconut creamer Sight:  wildflowers, wild strawberry blossoms Sound: Missing Witness; Walking Wounded Smell: mac and cheese; burrito cheese; garlic pasta Touch:  Mary Shelley softness; ears ringing Extra: Tolerant? Is it true? Is it desirable?; car names: DaLime, Mouse, Shiny, Neal, Parthen, Ogen The Hawkline Monster; loud, dark, black, smoky, drunk-industrial Grateful for: superlative trees; reading days, technology-devices

But shouldn't the planet be above? Taste:  salt Sight: yellow, white, purple magnolias; cherry blossoms; a vintage yellow convertible speeds down the street the woman in the passengers seat has deep purple hair; cherry blossom petals windblown falling like snow; from her perch on the window sill her tail hangs down Sound: laughter; a dog's snore Smell:  lilac Touch: summer camping air morning beneath the evergreens, dusty, cool but warming and growing hot Extra: In which, I have all the sweet and fancy ingredients on hand to make the decadent treat for a friend: chocolate, turmeric, cinnamon, almond milk creme liqueur; in which, my friend comes up with a secret plan to end the war; in which, she betrays everything; in which, we lose two lives; in which, hate continues to win Grateful for: those who make an effort

Taste:  vanilla Sight: pink wildflower Sound: raindrops on garbage cans Smell:  lingering incense Touch:  webbed feet, rubbery paper, tiny toenails Extra: a big old house, children who jump through time;  "Maybe Earth was a utopia, of a sort, after all." — Sarena Ulibarri, "Riding in Place," Biketopia "Above all, we need to understand utopia as a method rather than a goal … always suspended between the present and the future, always under revision, at the meeting point of the darkness of the lived moment and the flickering light of a better world, for the moment accessible only through an act of imagination. — Ruth Levitas, Utopia as Method (2013)  Grateful for: namaste; Utopian Acts; Earth

Taste: dry mouth Sight:  A water spray!; the officer's reflection; gold chains Sound: Crunch!; fast talking; a small cutoff scream Smell: pavement, rubber, heat, fuel Touch: forward and back - whiplash Extra: systems not meant to serve us; glaring disparity; theft; injustice Grateful for: luck; a sunny day; fitness; engineering; 10 good years; every time it starts; support systems