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Kasey Butcher Santana describes a scene about her “outdoor classroom.”
“My science teacher uses a ruler and twine to mark a square-foot box in the damp blanket of leaves covering the ‘outdoor classroom.’ My task today is to observe this small patch. Part of a log has fallen within the boundaries, and I note the moss that grows on it and the bugs that seek shelter under its flaking bark. We return once a month to note how this woodland square changes with the seasons and maybe even write a poem.
I do not remember completing this assignment, but I recall the crisp smell of forest floor, the slip of mud beneath my shoes, and the surprise of a roly-poly beneath the log.”
Excerpted from How a Box in the Woods Taught Me to Write About Nature by Kasey Butcher Santana on the April 2, 2025 Brevity Blog.
Can you see this scene? The ruler, the twine, the square-foot box, the damp blanket of leaves. Maybe you know that smell of damp leaves, of a crisp forest smell, of mud.
Notice how sensory detail bring this scene from the page into you sensory awareness, into your memory bank.
More on sensory detail in writing on The Write Spot Blog:
The Neurological Impact of Sensory Detail
Sensory Detail . . . Prompt #738
