For today’s Poetics, I want you all to write a poem about August. Feel it in your bones. Come tell us what the month means to you. You can write about it in terms of weather and mood, write inspired by the examples shared above or opt to compose a darker, more philosophical piece. The choice is yours!
There you are, August,
One step below the ‘top’.
Stretched longest on my ‘map’
Born from a child’s viewpoint.
Lazily I’ll climb toward September along your pathway.
[ I was 60 years old before I found my answer to a lifelong question. “Doesn’t everybody visualize months of the year in a 3D realm?” After years of blank dumbfounded responses to my statements about “seeing” numbers, days of the week, and months of the year, in three dimensions, I found out that I have Spatial Sequence Synesthesia! Those with this viewpoint have uniquely individual “mental maps” of all kinds of sequences. It’s a fascinating gift/defect caused by overlapping senses. Children are born with overlapping senses but supposedly outgrow them. Not everyone! Synesthesia takes MANY forms. I encourage everyone to look it up.
As for my poem, the mention of any month draws an immediate visual personal response. I’ve attached a link to my former post on the topic.]
https://sillyfrogsusan.com/2018/08/29/spatial-sequence-synesthesia/
https://dversepoets.com/2022/08/02/poetics-sometimes-august-isnt-recognized
Sillyfrog's Blog 
I knew about synesthesia, but not about special sense synesthesia. It’s fascinating that you can see numbers and months in three dimensions. Your poem captures that so well. It’s such a unique reality and a gift.
Thank-you. I feel blessed with it. My only difficulty is transitioning to the New Year. My ‘map’ ends on December 31st, and I must make a ‘leap’ to January 1st. The first two weeks of every year, I have an unsteady feeling deep down.
Fascinating post!
Thank-you, Nancy! 😊
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Susan…that explains (to a point ) your powerful insight!
I am glad it didn’t obstruct your every day life but rather enhance it!
I found an article I had saved from years ago, regarding functional MRI and synesthesia.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00103/full
Since it is a long, and technical read, here is the conclusion:
“There is no evidence so far that the experience of synesthesia comes from structural brain alterations.
Conclusion
We did not find any clear-cut empirical evidence so far about the neural correlates of the subjective experience of synesthesia. We did not find any structural or functional anomaly in the brain of synesthetes that could explain synesthesia. In our view, most published studies to date show, in fact, that the brains of synesthetes are functionally and structurally similar to the brains of non-synesthetes.
MRI Research in Cognitive Neuroscience: The Example of Synesthesia
Yet, most published synesthesia papers described here claimed to have found neural correlates of synesthesia. Almost all these claims were unsupported due to statistical errors, questionable methodological choices, or low statistical power.
Synesthesia is often described as a neurological condition: the cause of synesthesia would be a structural or functional anomaly in the brain of synesthetes. Findings of functional or structural differences in synesthetes have often been interpreted to support such a view. Note, however, that functional results do not necessarily speak to whether synesthesia is a neurological condition or not. Synesthetes do have a different subjective experience than non-synesthetes when confronted with their idiosyncratic synesthetic material, a different subjective experience that must be reflected in the brain (where else?). The question at stake is whether we possess the methodological and theoretical tools to observe it. In any case, if none of the proposed structural or functional differences should be confirmed, this would speak against synesthesia being a neurological condition. But, then, what could be the nature of synesthesia?
In the early 2000s, the neurological hypothesis was often contrasted against a memory hypothesis: that the experience of synesthetic colors more closely resembles color memory than color perception. Since synesthetic associations appear during childhood, they may just be a special kind of childhood memory – special because these memories are deprived from their autobiographical context. But in that case, one should be able to trace back the origin of these souvenirs.
If synesthetic associations are memories of a special kind, the neural correlates of synesthesia may be difficult to identify as long as detecting the signature of memory contents in the brain is out of reach.”
Thank-you Nick!
I tend not to mention the whole subject often. Most people find it uncomfortable to imagine much like many feel when time travel is brought up.
I devoured your extensive comment!
My relationship with math class was difficult and I’m certain that the synesthesia played a big role. My ‘map’ is not linear. The introduction of negative numbers blew my mind! (I avoid them still. 🤣)
Can you guess what single math class that I aced?
Geometry. A visual (sharp) memory worked wonders there.
I try to bring Spatial Sequence Synesthesia up from time to time hoping that parents and Math teachers will look for it and allow for it. Wish I had known about it sooner. I would have questioned my grandparents about it. Some believe it runs in families.
Thank-you for your interest and those compliments sprinkled throughout your comments. 😊
Spatial Sequence Synesthesia! That is new to me, and yes I looked it up immediately. I am imagining how different it must be .. as views differ and offer a completely new outlook. I am glad you shared it with us. Sending love. Thank you so much for adding your voice to the prompt 💖💖💖
The wonderful prompt brought up the topic. Isn’t it amazing how many directions one prompt can take us?!
Many thanks. 😊❤
How fascinating, Susan! I must read more about this gift.
So happy that you’re interested! Thanks.
You are welcome.
I love the visual and your interpretation of time e.g. month, numbers. I have read about synesthesia as it is also used as a poetic tool. Your specific synethesia is very interesting. Thanks for sharing!
Your kind comment made me smile. Thanks YOU for your interest affirming words. 😊❤
I have often wished for some capacity for synesthesia to draw on. How wonderful to have dimensions added to my very linear perspectives. Maybe I can learn how to construct such insights to a limited extent by reading your words. The idea of climbing a pathway to September has me intrigued. Thank you.
I understand completely. Hearing about people who have other kinds of synesthesia makes me curious too.
I rarely am conscious of mine. It’s my reality and I’m not constantly dealing with sequences.
Finding out that I was a little different from others was the weirdest part. Thank-you for your interest. 😊