What is a sensuist?

 

A sensuist is someone who delights in sensory experience.  It is not the same as a sensualist, one who is gratified by satisfying his or her sexual appetites.

Diane Ackerman, in her best-selling book, A Natural History of the Senses, writes of Hellen Keller as one of the greatest sensuists of all time.  Deaf, blind and mute, "her remaining senses were so finely attuned that when she put her hands on the radio to enjoy music, she could tell the difference between the cornets and the strings.  She listened to colorful, downhome stories of life surging down the Mississippi from her friend Mark Twain.  She wrote at length about the whelm of life's aromas, tastes, touches, feelings, which she explored with the voluptuousness of a courtesan.  Despite her handicaps, she was more robustly alive than many people of her generation."

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

“A free bird leaps on the back of the wind 
and floats downstream till the current ends
and dips his wing in the orange sun’s rays and dares to claim the sky.


But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage
can seldom see through his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.”

-Maya Angelou I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

I recently launched my new website: www.galleryofthesenses.net

I recently launched my new website: www.galleryofthesenses.net.  I will be offering Sensuist Intimacy Coaching in addition to Landscape Design in Santa Clara County, California.  Please visit my website, and I welcome your comments.  I also invite you to contact me at lcharpontier@gmail.com with further questions.  Be well.