Using a Senses Chart: Sweet Apple Poems

I am participating in #SliceofLife20. Thanks to twowritingteachers team for creating this space for us to write, share, and grow.

Green Apples

Light and pretty,
Lime green or apple green.
Mixing well with pinks and blues,
Copper, bronze, and earthy browns, too.
Smooth and hard outside,
Wet and sticky inside.
Sour and sweet,
Healthy as red ones.
Stabilizes blood sugar levels,
Improves your appetite.
Rich in Vitamin C and K,
Loaded with Vitamin A content.
Packed with fiber and proteins,
Rich in iron, zinc, and manganese.
Round and firm,
Exotic and amazing…
A blessing from Mother Nature,
Little green apples.

A great way to write a poem is to experience something – a place, an object, an event – through the senses. When we write, we often rely heavily on our eyes. Just appealing to one more sense will lift the level of the writing. To create a senses chart like this one, it is great to have several kinds of apples available for looking, touching, smelling, tasting, and of course, listening to the sound we make when we bite into an apple.

It is interesting to note that some people suffer from Misophonia, selective sound sensitivity syndrome.  Are you annoyed when you hear the sounds of someone eating and slurping?  While it is reasonable to get slightly agitated when someone is chomping with their mouth open, this condition can actually cause panic and rage in the person hearing it.  Here is a senses chart – and yes, I did a lot of chomping on apples to create this chart. My chart helped me to get started writing a poem, but in the end, it turned out to be an informational poem. I love green apples and use them in cranberry sauce, spring and fall salads, and apple pies.

From Lynne’s notebook – A Senses Chart

Sight	Sound	Smell	Taste	Touch
little brown stem	crispy crunch	sweet	sweet	smooth and hard
A precious treasure	munch	like warm sunshine	tasty and tangy	wet and sticky
Round and plump	chomp	natural	ripe	heavy
plucked from a tree	caaarrrrunch	fragrant	rich	round
In a salad		Sweet smells from Grandma’s oven	delightful and delicious	warm or cold
Grandma’s open-faced pie			cinnamon and sugar

Some Things May Change, But….

Social distancing (Weren’t we already practicing this when our neighborhoods are mostly empty of kids playing outside since they are busy with videogames and such?}

Schools and universities empty as students head home for the next several weeks or an entire semester.

Hospital visitors, screened, restricted, or not allowed at all.

Professional- and collegiate-level organizations paused or altogether canceled their seasons.

Airlines suspending flights, cruise ships and other vacation venues cancel scheduled holidays.

A different St. Patrick’s Day today – but lots of choices:

• Bake something green.
• Read some Irish Poetry (William Butler Yeats, Thomas Moore, Samuel Beckett, John Montague, Jane Wilde, Cecil Day Lewis).
• Order your own copy of The Farmette Cookbook: Recipes and Adventures from My Life on an Irish Farm and cook like an Irishman today!
• Read about Ireland – past and present.
• Play some Irish Music, perhaps by The Dubliners – The Town I Loved So Well, Finnegan’s Wake, Whiskey in the Jar.
• Dream of a trip to the Emerald Isle and visit The Isle of Dingle, the Cliffs of Moher, the Guinness Storehouse, Burren National Park, The Ring of Kerry, Dublin and Trinity College.

Important for us today – we celebrated Rhonda’s fifteenth birthday (Corgi on the right) – significant because she is our oldest Welsh Corgi, and we are so glad she is still with us. Last spring, she was diagnosed with a tumor in her colon. Our vet told us he would not suggest operating. He had many good reasons, and we agreed it would be best to just have her and love her for as long as we have her. Right now, she is enjoying life – loves her meals, loves to bark to tell us it’s time to go out, loves getting doggy biscuits, loves to be petted and hugged.  We are so glad she is still here with us. Perhaps it is the comfort in having the familiar that will help us get through these strange times.  Some things change, but some things remain the same. I will always love Rhonda and Merrill and Arthur.  They kept Ralph and I company while we planted six flats of pansies to brighten our yard and our day. They played and barked and tried to help us dig holes for the plants.  Yes, some things never change. Thank goodness!

Merri & Rhonda on the couch – they love to sleep in a pack.

Arthur (almost 3 years old) likes to be up close and personal.

I am participating in #Sliceof Life20. Thanks to twowritingteachers team for creating this space for us to share and grow!