31 Poetic Senses
-- an'ya
Those of us who write haiku and/or tanka, are aware that there are 5 main seasons, plus numerous sub-seasons. However, as far as the “senses”, it’s more extensive. With this article, I’m addressing the subject hoping it might help other poets to expand their minds as well as enhance their writing of the Japanese genre. The first person who tried to make a list of human senses was the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384 BC–322 BC). He was also the first one to name the 5 basic human senses. Later, 4 more senses were added to his list, and then they were further differentiated to reach 21 or more (sometimes 33) human senses, depending on differences of opinion. A list of the human senses (those that are generally accepted), their related human sense organs, and the function of human senses are the following.
The 5 Basic Senses
Visual Perception, Sight:
watching a wild finch
flit casually to and fro
uninhibited I start to wonder if it’s
a curse to be born human
Auditory Sensations, Sound:
ever since love I have known all four sounds
of the seasons spring song and summer panting
autumn moans and wintry sighs
The Tongue, or sense of Taste:
month of june a wild blueberry parts
the jay’s beak this stellar recollection
of kisses that made me love
The Nose, or sense of Smell:
washday postponed
although I clearly detect
the scent of lemon
even on this misty morn
you’re able to distract me
The Skin, or sense of Touch:
mimosa why do you shy away
from my hand
love is to know what
is touched touches back
The 4 Internal Human Senses
Skin as the lack or an increase of Temperatures:
your fingertips caressed my skin as if
reading by braille on this dark winter’s night—
how felt the written word
(recent 3rd Place HPNC)
Body Parts, or awareness of them without Visual input:
while you slumber I work late into the night
our own rhythms like full moon and rising tide
what’s one without the other
Whole Body, or the sensation of Pain or Pleasure in the body, skin, or organs:
dragonflies
above a watery moon
tightly clasped
we too part satisfied
with our encounter
The 6 Additional Senses
Skin, or its perception of Pressure as a sense:
before puffballs took flight on the spring wind
I dreamt of this your soft roundness against
my rough skin one last time
Whole Body, or the sense of Acceleration:
desert tortoise
moving at breakneck speed
for what it is this love of ours compares
more to a bullet train
Blood and Brain, or the sensations of Hunger/starvation, Thirst/dehydration, Sickness/vomiting, Shortness of breath/suffocation, or Mental confusion:
what will work to clear my mind full
of cobwebs
when the spider spins
so prolifically
Sense of Balance, either Physical or Mental or both:
birds on a wire the afternoon stillness
steadies their world
will love be this way too
without a safety net
Skin, or the sense of being Flushed or Blushing:
the first burst of hot pink sky shone so brightly- but the blush on her cheeks
was even more poignant
Muscle Stretching, or the sense of Childbirth, Gag reflex, or Bodily excretions:
my blood and bone
slipping from darkness
into bright light her small skull as round
as a slavic moon
Body Parts or a cocktail of senses like Frowning at someone’s Voice, or Smiling at another’s Looks:
you were the one who always made me smile
until today- the rodeo clown’s face
painted blue with tears
The 6 more controversial Extrasensory Perception Senses
The Sixth Sense, Intuition:
you colored in all of the empty loops
in my handwriting
and after this I sensed
there would be no other
Premonition, or the subconscious sense of Future events, usually of foreboding:
close enough to reach out and touch
a sandhill crane will you also come close
only to wing away
Telepathy, Auditory perception of a person’s (near or distant) Thoughts:
our chance meeting to what might we compare it
all was quiet on mutual horizons until swan geese came honking
Precognition, Visual perception of Future events of any type:
in this month of leafy willows fluid
with windy ways
perhaps it's fated that we
will brush against each other
Clairvoyance, Visual perception of Invisible objects or Events:
never alone even though in the flesh
you are absent for your spirit's not lost
it’s where a seabird flies
Clairaudience, Auditory perception of the Invisible:
night music
nobody knows about
our secret only the mockingbirds
sing of what we whisper
The 10 Roles of Human Senses
Perception:
across the blue on a cirrus cloud morning
various shapes of angels & chimeras we all view things differently
Motion:
the moon the sun and horizontal currents
that move the tides how intimate are we too
with love’s ups and its downs
Reaction:
on new-fallen snow the sight of a headless bird
makes my heart ache
what am I now without you
except also incomplete
Articulation:
oh falling star
how fortunate tonight
you pinpoint me in this whole universe
full of other people
Interpretation:
sheet waterfall
steadily spilling
over the edge a mountain wept tears
or so does it feign
Comprehension:
how many times I've crushed autumn leaves
until today when a chickadee drank from one that cupped the rain
Cognition:
the breast feathers
of a great blue heron
tickle my thoughts
this evening your heart
brushes against mine
Recognition:
painted lady I’ll never cease to love
nor forget the way that you drink
nectar from a thistle
Sensation:
as sure as rain kept falling from the clouds
that sensation when our eyes met and what
started could not be stopped
Sense of Time:
funeral day steady rain unearths
our time capsule
filled with the treasures
we buried as siblings
Publication Credits: Skylark, Lynx, Yellow Moon, Atlas Poetica, Angels & Chimeras,
Ribbons, Tanka Calendar Contest, cattails, Tanka Companion, moonbathing, and Mariposa. All tanka examples are by an'ya.