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Some will recognize this blog's title, taken from the words of French Enlightenment philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau: "Smell is the sense of memory and desire." Later, these words were masterfully integrated into the opening lines of T.S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land:
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Every time I spray Alfred Sung's pale, watery lilac confection Sha, I think of these lines and wonder what other associations between lyric and scent should I explore.
Not long ago, my husband gave me a gift of poet Louise Glück's recent book of poetry, Averno. There, in "October," she writes these words:
It is true there is not enough beauty in the world.
It is also true that I am not competent to restore it.
Neither is there candor, and here I may be of some use.
I have taken Ms. Glück's passage to guide me as a writer and as an explorer of the sensory world. I hope readers of these articles will find something of beauty: an idea, an olfactory pleasure, or the candor of a well-crafted poem.
Heather
Author's Bio
Heather Ettlinger is a freelance writer, artist, translator, and online journal editor as well as a part-time graduate student and full-time executive administrator within the financial services industry. An avid confectioner and cake designer, her interest in edible aromatics led her to explore the history and development of contemporary perfumery, which soon blossomed into a full-time obsession with scent. In her current online project, Memory & Desire, she recounts her explorations in a weekly series of essays on the intertwined sensuality of poetry and perfume.
A former poetry editor of The William and Mary Review, her poems have appeared in Prism, Black Buzzard Review, A Gallery of Writing, and other journals. She is a member of the Academy of American Poets, The Poetry Society of America, and WritersNet. In addition to her other interests, Heather has been employed as a journalist, confectioner, English teacher, perfume advisor, graphic designer, and presentation specialist while residing in Virginia, Texas, and Austria. She currently lives near Austin, Texas, with her husband, anthropologist Jason Ettlinger.
To provide feedback, share poems, report broken links, or complain to memory & desire semi-anonymously, feel free to email me at heather [at] memoryanddesire [dot] net, or use the interface below.
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