Your attention is an extremely powerful and valuable tool. One corporations, telemarketers, and others who want your money spend a lot of time and money of their own trying to capture. They do this by storming your senses with images, scents and sounds taken out of context. I’m sure some of you have cringed like me at hearing a meaningful favorite song become the sales anthem of can of soda or a car. This exploitation of our senses is part of the reality of the world we live in. But using/misusing art and nature this way robs us of the power of direct experience. Of experiencing for ourselves the bliss-full, healing, nature of Beauty And so, we have to take back what is rightly ours! The peace, power, and joy that arises from right use of our sensory intelligence and attention.
One of aims of EngagingtheSenses is to provide a refuge from fragmentation and negatively. Since I believe our senses are portals to Presence, wholeness and Connection- with our true Self, I wanted to create a safe, nourishing, emotionally intelligent space devoted to refining and reclaiming the power of the senses. Being present to Beauty (in any of its forms) through the means of your senses is a way of choosing where to put your attention, and has the power to heal hearts and nourish our deepest humanity. To this end, I offer this poem today, and will continue to compile resources that contribute to the collective journey of awakening. According to teacher and award-winning poet, Kim Rosen (Kimrosen.net), “Poetry is the language of the soul. From below the surface of your life, the truth of who you are calls to you through the poems you love. Even if you have been touched by only one poem, or just a single line heard at a crucial moment and remembered, those words are an invitation from within. To take them deeply into your life and speak them aloud brings every level of who you are-your thoughts, words, feelings, and even your physical energies-into alignment with what matters most to you. You are receiving and giving voice not only to the poem but also to your own soul.” Beside my bookshelf, one of the places I turn to for poems is the PoetryFoundation.org. They email me a poem, from their vast library of a breathtakingly talented poets, both living and dead, everyday. Where do you turn? Which poems and poets speak to your heart and your senses. I’d love to know!!

He said he would be back and we’d drink wine together
He said that everything would be better than before
He said we were on the edge of a new relation
He said he would never again cringe before his father
He said that he was going to invent full-time
He said he loved me that going into me
He said was going into the world and the sky
He said all the buckles were very firm
He said the wax was the best wax
He said Wait for me here on the beach
He said Just don’t cry
I remember the gulls and the waves
I remember the islands going dark on the sea
I remember the girls laughing
I remember they said he only wanted to get away from me
I remember mother saying : Inventors are like poets,
a trashy lot
I remember she told me those who try out inventions are worse
I remember she added : Women who love such are the
Worst of all
I have been waiting all day, or perhaps longer.
I would have liked to try those wings myself.
It would have been better than this.

Muriel Rukeyser, Waiting for Icarus