In 826 Valencia’s Writing Through the Senses workshop, we believe in firing the marvelous abilities of our imagination through sensory detail of the world around us. In our last session, we closed our eyes and traveled through the front door of our homes, stopping in the kitchen for a chocolate chip cookie warm from the oven on our way to the one room that is so distinctly our own, the bedroom. While there, we enjoyed the bright colors and muted colors, patterns and textures that adorned our walls, our floors and our furniture. We discovered afresh the sweet smell of our own clothes, our lead pencils and our pets. We listened to comforting murmurings coming from the kitchen just before dinnertime and our father’s snoring that told us all was safe in the house. It wasn’t easy to open our eyes and start writing; the journey itself was so much fun.

In the previous three weeks, we saw and touched, listened, smelled and tasted and found words to describe all that we experienced. We made lists of remembered sightings and tastes and lists of others we could imagine. We wrote poems and prose using all these words and sometimes using each other’s favorite words as well. We read to each other, loving grapefruits that slid out of sight under couches and dreamy poems offering up glimpses of brighter worlds.

When we were all done, we feasted on brownies and discussed most knowledgably the merits of both dark and milk chocolates.

-Victoria Q. Legg, teacher