* Inspired by the post, How to Unlock all Five Senses in your Writing from The Write Practice.
 
On one of the first spring-like days of this year, I went to a park downtown, sat at a picnic table and wrote from the perspective of all my senses before taking the photograph above, which I called Magnificent Tree Shadow.

“The key to unlocking the five senses is the question behind it. The question of why you are seeing, hearing, tasting, hearing, or feeling something. Once you’ve established the sense, ask the question, What does this mean?”

Sight – What did I see? What did I not see? Describe the details.

Brand new picnic tables, puddle remnants from the rain in the previous days, bright sunshine, this magnificent tree shadow, grass still brown and yellow but starting to green, cemetery in the distance, people walking along Queen Street and in the park, children playing, the bandshell, St. Mark’s Church, parked cars, blue sky, no clouds, muddy spots, the Moffatt Inn, a white house, little wind. I could not see the lake or the stores on the next block.

Taste – Use metaphor that unlocks emotions and memories.

It was a taste of spring, bringing back memories of ice cream and iced coffee from Balzac’s, two of my favourite things.

Smell – All of them, good and bad.

Fresh air, car fumes, lake water.

Sound – Use onomatopoeia. Describe all sounds, external and internal.

Motorcycles revving, car horns honking, people talking, kids squealing with delight, motors humming, swings squeaking, slight breeze, stillness within, mind and heart taking it all in.

Touch – Use temperature and texture.

Warmth on the skin, coolness in the breeze, smooth wood on the new table, soft earth beneath my feet, hair  blowing like feathers on my face.

How did this exercise affect my experience and the taking of the photograph?

 
I wouldn’t have seen the shadow as I did unless I sat down where I did. Working with my senses helped me to experience and inhabit the moment completely.

It was a taste of spring
Bright sunshine, puddle remnants, warm breeze
Children shrieking, people walking and talking,
Motorcycles revving, swings swaying,
I stopped and sat,
Felt the soft ground beneath my feet
And that’s when I saw
The magnificent shadow