Shel Graves' Sensorium

Taste: coconut curry  Sound: alarm; alarm barking  Smell: cinnamon incense  Sight: white flag tails  Touch: smooshy  Intellect, ideas, and dreams: animals and politics  Grateful for: travel

Taste: honeycrisp apples Sound: the author’s voice Smell: pancakes; apples Sight: bright light Touch: a soft apple; a crisp apple Intellect, ideas, and dreams: nightmares - losing vision on the freeway, an animal bites, an animal harmed Grateful for: a good night’s sleep

Taste: tangy Sound: mom’s voice; drizzle; sputtering; shrieking squabbling rats; her alarm bark versus her demand bark Smell: apple cider, maple syrup Sight: redness, swelling; evergreen treetops in sunlight; Mom’s handwriting Touch: stinging, burning, itching; drizzle Intellect, ideas, and dreams: “She waits patiently knowing she will not be forgotten.” “She likes to eat dinner one piece at a time.” Grateful for: calm, calmness, heart center

Taste: apples and bananas Sound: mom’s voice; barking, skittering, flickering  Smell:  cinnamon, cloves, warm spice Sight: redness, swelling; evergreen treetops in sunlight; Mom’s handwriting; monkey tree; a raccoon crawling on the top of the fence at night; a small dog sits alertly on your lap; a bruised leg Touch: stinging, burning, itching; coolness Intellect, ideas, and dreams: “She waits patiently knowing she will not be forgotten.” “She likes to eat dinner one piece at a time.”  Grateful for: calm, calmness, heart center

Taste:  gingergold apple Sound:   “You’re Dead,” by Norma Tanega; a raccoon sneezes; "Sophie!" Smell:  sweet potato Sight: orange; hornets on the white back of a baby dog; the crows flocking to the same tree; blue-grey sky of morning Touch: hornet stings - itch, sting; crisp apple Intellect, ideas, and dreams: numinous- strong religious or spiritual quality  Grateful for: the grey barn owl

Taste: lavender black current  Sound: dryer rolling, churning; candle flame flickering; chopping; sprinkling, crunching Smell:  culinary lavender Sight: orange light; choppy waters; evergreen trees Touch:  making salad, wet greens, chopping, sprinkling, textures, soft, crunchy, firm Intellect, ideas, and dreams: numinous- strong religious or spiritual quality; Owl Meadow; "She says all healing involves acceptance and gratitude for even the most painful times and teachers." --"The seventeenth day after she began chemotherapy, Pisces New Moon," Snowy Owls, Egrets, & Unexpected Graces --Gwendolyn Morgan Grateful for: the sun, the world, and  the moon

Taste: lime Sound:  chimes Smell: rose candle burning Sight: pink drink, ice cubes, tumbler, and lime; yellow haze smokey sky, the evergreen trees look white; corpses - raccoons and the torso of a squirrel pecked at by a murder of crows Touch: squirming animal Intellect, ideas, and dreams:  I dreamt I was a girl exploring a beautiful new place, Wow! Exhilarated amazed, but also an industrial site, with one boy I stepped onto some soft industrial sand and then I was swept away (don’t swim!) very quickly, eventually everything stilled and I was rescued (this part not depicted) but then “the girl” committed suicide or tried from being covered in the carcinogenic or hazardous muck, even rescue could not save her and it was painful to drink even water  Grateful for: ideas, dreams, inspiration