Index of Articles (All Posts)

The following list contains all articles which have appeared on Memory & Desire since its inception in August 2007.  As of early 2008, articles appear weekly and are generally posted on Sunday or Monday.

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Entirely Green
May 2008

• Poetry: "Quelque Parfum" (Some Perfume) by Rainer Maria Rilke
• Perfumes: Roxana Illuminated Perfumes Q and Sierra, Ayala Moriel Gaucho, Niki de Saint Phalle
• Excerpt: "My relative ignorance of "green" perfumes has been both willful and convenient.  Mostly willful because, until recently, I simply never liked any notes that I would have characterized as "green" and I actively hated the big, monstrous greens that are easily overapplied and never seem to smell good on anyone I know.  Yes, I am thinking here of your favorite green perfumes, including, but not limited to: Chanel No 19, Estee Lauder Private Collection, Caron Muguet do Bonheur, Gres Cabotine, Carven Ma Griffe."
  

The Wake
April 2008

• Poetry: "Iris" by David St. John
• Excerpt: "David St. John's poem touches on some of the emotions that are also present in Louis MacNiece's "Soap Suds," in which the author realizes that the soap he's washing his hands with is the same soap he used as a child.  For him, the soap is the train that travels backwards into the house of his childhood.  There are some interesting similarities between the poems, including a sort of momentary transfiguration of adult into child, but David St. John makes the link to fragrance far more explicitly than MacNeice.   The device of the train can also be sensed as sillage, a trail of scent: 'the wake of the woman who's just swept past you on her way / Home.'"

Nothing in Hand
April 2008

• Poetry: "Keep me fully glad..." by Rabindranath Tagore
• Excerpt: "The rains sweep the sky from end to end. Jasmines in the wet untamable wind revel in their own perfume. The cloud-hidden stars thrill in secret. Let me fill to the full my heart with nothing but my own depth of joy."

Extraordinary NYC: Odds and Ends
April 2008

• Poetry: "Public Transportation" by Elaine Sexton
• Excerpt: Thoughts on New York City, Sniffapalooza, Perfumes: The Guide, and National Poetry Month.

Perfuming Literature: Interview with Christophe Laudamiel
April 2008

• Poetry: "Le Dormeur du Val" by Arthur Rimbaud; "The Sleeper in the Valley" by Robert Mezey
• Excerpt: "Funny enough, it was only yesterday when I copied "Le Dormeur du Val" for you that I realized that the word "perfume" is in it!  This poem has always struck me, and only now do I realize that it even mentions scent! (In a dramatic way, of course.)  It fits perfectly.  This poem is both very peaceful, idyllic, Virgilian, which is very "me" in terms of always chasing an ideal much more than money. And at the same time the brutal pitch at the end creates such a drama. Each time I think about it, I get shivers. I can't  believe the world can be so mean at times, or that nature can also be so cruel at times--like you could be eaten alive by ants or by cancer (knock on wood).  Or more exactly, I can believe it, this is reality, but I can never understand why.  And no one probably can."

End Note: Perfume in a Poem (with JoAnne Bassett)
March 2008

• Poetry: "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound
• Excerpt: Includes the contribution of perfumer JoAnne Bassett. "The poem that we've been exploring for the last two weeks, "In a Station of the Metro," took Ezra Pound almost two years to write.  I suppose, then, that it's not such a great shame that I am at a loss for words in response to the great outpouring of creativity and generosity which the perfumers here have shown us over the past two weeks.  I feel as the poet must have felt during those years.  I want to tell you how grateful I am that this project came to life, but I'm afraid I can find very little to add to what the they themselves have written on the subject of Pound's poem.  They truly took this strange little project and made it soar."

Liz Zorn: Perfume in a Poem
March 2008

• Poetry: "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound
• Excerpt: Liz Zorn discusses the imaginative perfume blend that Pound's poem might inspire. " The first thing that popped into my head after reading this, were the words Sweet Decay.  It reminds me of a time long gone. And  yet is still relevant today. The death of mankind, the death of nature. And perhaps, rebirth is  in there somewhere. Between the lines. Also, and for reasons that I am not concerned with analyzing. I immediately thought of the Degas painting, “The Absinthe Drinkers.”  I imagined what that room might smell like, and decided that it smelled like Sweet Decay. The end of something that never quite had it’s day. It smelled like the Station, The Black Bough, and countless other things that pull our minds to a place of nostalgic reverence. This smell is of the earth, the attic, years of cooking and smoke clinging to old walls. Brittle books half eaten by bugs and rats, and the faint sweetness of an old corsage."

Roxana Villa: Perfume in a Poem
March 2008

• Poetry: "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound
• Excerpt: Roxana Villa discusses the imaginative perfume blend that Pound's poem might inspire. "I found the three line structure of the poem intriguing and haunting. I wasn't sure how the numerical aspect was to be woven in, all I knew is that it was resonating deeply within me. The number three (triad, triple, triangle) contains a wealth of symbolic imagery to pull from. I read once that numbers are the hidden root of words. Then, just like the poem, I saw an apparition in my mind's eye and the perfume gracefully unfolded like the Lotus just before the dawn. The image was of three luminous faeries perched on a tree branch awaiting the first light of day. They are The Three Graces and each represents a floral note in the heart of the perfume."

Andy Tauer: Perfume in a Poem
March 2008

• Poetry: "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound
• Excerpt: Andy Tauer discusses the imaginative perfume blend that Pound's poem might inspire. "This fragrance, that I am supposed to construct, it is an urban fragrance, fitting with the urban environment of the Metro, and I guess I am supposed to create a scent with a retro touch to it (1913!). It is a French fragrance, not an American clean scent, but a scent with a dirty line in it. There is dust and the smell of human beings after work around the corner, just a touch, but it is there. The fragrance contains a flower line, a surprise element, and is set on a base that is deep and dark, juxtapositioned to the delicate, temporal beauty appearing.  The flowers are not specified, but must be light and delicate. The flowers should appear and dissappear, a burst of spring, coming forth and back, a movement. They are fresh and clean."

Michael Storer: Perfume in a Poem
March 2008

• Poetry: "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound
• Excerpt: Michael Storer's contribution to the project, in Poem form. "I chose to concentrate ... on the freshness one feels on a drizzly day coming out of that warm and human-filled place and discovering bracing air and a slice of countryside in one of the wet trees which line the boulevards. A spark of nature in that hectic place. A twenty second pause where time stands still as in zen meditation. I can see why my eau de parfum brings to mind the sea for you. It's in the wet, earthy and slightly dirty moss-like notes that I was attempting to capture for my concept of the "black bough." I share your love of both the seaside and countryside in France as well as in it's romantic City of Lights."

Ayala Sender: Perfume in a Poem
March 2008

• Poetry: "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound
• Excerpt: Ayala Sender discusses the imaginative perfume blend that Pound's poem might inspire. "I want this perfume to be subtle and urban, floral but also dirty. Not from earth, but from dust and pollution… An urban dirt, so to speak. The kind of dirt you wash from your hair after commuting back from work in the Metro, your clothes and skin contaminated with the lives of strangers and passers by. And for a moment you give away a part of yourself just so that you can return back home…"

Ineke Rühland: Perfume in a Poem 
March 2008

• Poetry: "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound
• Excerpt: Ineke Rühland discusses the imaginative perfume blend that Pound's poem might inspire. "I will assume the “apparition” of faces Pound sees in the metro to be beautiful faces, and not the sleepy, office-bound commuters that one often sees in today’s metro.  While the idea of an apparition can seem somewhat mystical, I think in perfumery a nice interpretation would be the weaving in and out of different components in a scent.  I personally love evolution in a fragrance rather than monolithic structures, so I see this as permission to have a complete transition in the evaporation of top, middle and base notes, as long as all the notes are beautiful and interesting... Having created a solid foundation representing the first half of the poem, I think we can use the second part of the poem, “petals on a wet black bough” to add the beauty and distinctiveness that our chypre needs.  I would add both olfactive elements that appear in the line: the blossoms and the rain/wet wood note."

Anya McCoy: Perfume in a Poem
March 2008

• Poetry: "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound
• Excerpt: Anya McCoy discusses the imaginative perfume blend that Pound's poem might inspire.  "Perfumes transport, trains transport: the movement, the moment of scent commingled, then dispersed. This image came to me in a dream. When I awoke after the dream and researched Ezra Pound I found he started the Imagism movement in poetry, and it all seemed right. I'd start with an image to show the reality of what those "petals" really smell like: a crowd of notes on a wet, black scent strip representing the platform of the subway station where people gather.  I would then work on modifications to arrive at a perfume that would also incorporate the hot metal, the cool rush of air, brake pads, starchy friction, and wet concrete that are the basic universal subway smells.  The foul and the fragrant petals are but transitory elements in the unchanging dark wet tube of the transport realm."

Christophe Laudamiel: Perfume in a Poem
March 2008

• Poetry: "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound
• Excerpt: Christophe Laudamiel discusses the imaginative perfume blend that Pound's poem might inspire.  " A gulping blackhole towards a shiny blackbody / Only fourteen ingredients, top, bottom, no-body, / Two dark ones, / Twelve others dancing on top, not blending with these ones, / Easier said than done / Like a dozen feux-follets dancing on a gravestone. / Cocoa for somber complication, and Jabuticaba for golden honey supplication / As only natural inspiration. / The rest: gloomy mineral foundations / Clashing with twelve myriads of apologetic-looking perspirations."

Vero Kern: Perfume in a Poem
March 2008

• Poetry: "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound
• Excerpt: Vero Kern of vero.profumo discusses the imaginative perfume blend that Pound's poem might inspire.  "The perfume with a big H dedicated to Ezra Pound's Metro Haiku and specially created (virtually) for Heather Ettlinger would be a golden, glowing extrait de mimosa combined with the most enjoyable notes of jasmine de Grasse and some kinky neroli petals. And last but not least, the very special, mysterious, naughty base note of this fragrance will be… the Paris Metro note: the specific sweet rubber smell from the wheels… and others not detectable. The Scent of GOOD (Metro) VIBRATIONS!"

Rachel Jones: Perfume in a Poem
March 2008

• Poetry: "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound
• Excerpt: Rachel Jones of Virtue and Valor discusses the imaginative perfume blend that Pound's poem might inspire.  "Sweet strawberries from the girl with the long blonde hair / Vanilla from her mother, with face so fair / Musk from the man in the sharp tailored suit / Vetiver from his friend standing astute / Rose from the woman with the silvery hair / Maple from the cook selling his wares / Mint from the man with the bright red nose / Lily from the lady, ready in a pose. "

Dawn Spencer Hurwitz: Perfume in a Poem
March 2008

• Poetry: "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound
• Excerpt: Dawn Spencer Hurwitz of DSH Perfumes discusses the imaginative perfume blend that Pound's poem might inspire.  "The resultant perfume must be a paradox.  It starts somewhat sharp and green and lively and then becomes quiet and isolated but expansive...atmospheric...and moody with ghostly shadows. In the end (through the drydown) there is near silence except for just a whisper. "

Yosh Han: Perfume in a Poem
March 2008

• Poetry: "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound
• Excerpt: Yosh Han of YOSH Olfactory Sense discusses the imaginative perfume blend that Pound's poem might inspire.  "A tall man rushing to catch the train bumps me, sliding me into the tornado of commuters. I reach into my pocket and find my bottle of Apparition. I enjoy the unfurling of delicate petals"

Lisa Fong: Perfume in a Poem
March 2008

• Poetry: "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound
• Excerpt: Lisa Fong of Artemisia Natural Perfume discusses the imaginative perfume blend that Pound's poem might inspire.  "I started with base notes which would smell like the earth underground and/or a subway in a large city.  For this I used a vetiver and mitti blend.  Mitti is an essence which is actually made from the earth.  I wanted oiliness and decay. The colors I saw were black, grey, brown, and mossy green.  I used a very heavy oud to accent the base.  The oud is very dark and intense and also beautiful.  "

Mandy Aftel: Perfume in a Poem
March 2008

• Poetry: "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound
• Excerpt: Mandy Aftel of Aftelier discusses the imaginative perfume blend that Pound's poem might inspire.  " My base would be built around tonka absolute and costus.  Warm and sweet like caramel, tonka is the ultimate powdery note.   Costus, with its complicated aroma of a wet dog crossed with crushed violets,  retains the alchemical ability to transform every other essence.  To create a watery and shimmering base, I would dose heavily with costus to cause the other essences to give up their rough edges, like an apparition."

Perfume in a Poem: In a Station of the Metro
March 2008

• Poetry: "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound
• Excerpt: "For some time now, I've wondered whether Ezra Pound's short, beautiful poem "In a Station of the Metro" had any potential as a perfume.  In twenty words arranged into three lines (including the title), he succinctly brings to life the vision of a particular moment in time.  After having a conversation with a perfumer in which we discussed the possibility of using a poem in creating a perfume in which the color black was of importance, the first poem that came to my mind was Pound's little haiku-like sentence.  And then I wondered, if I were in a position to commission a fragrance and I did so by presenting the perfumer with this poem instead of a list of required notes and emotional qualities, what kind of fragrance might result? "

Upcoming: The Perfume Inside the Poem
March 2008

• Poetry: "Pleasures" by Denise Levertov; "One Train May Hide Another" by Kenneth Koch
• Excerpt: "In the middle of February, I emailed a number of perfumers whom I admire for a variety of reasons: some have an aesthetic sense that appeals to me, some have made their interest in poetry and literature public, and some have produced perfumes that can only be described as "scent poems." To each, I sent an email explaining the project.  For those willing to contribute their thoughts, I had one very short (2-3 line) poem in mind.  The perfumer was encouraged to think of it as a "perfume brief" from a client who only communicates in published poetry."

In Praise of Ambergris
March 2008

• Poetry & Literature: "Ambergris" by Stanley Kunitz; quotation by Alexander Pope; "Bermudas" by Andrew Marvell; "The Argument of His Book" by Robert Herrick; "Canzonet" by Oscar Wilde; quotation from Moby Dick by Herman Melville
• Perfume: Creed Angelique Encens, Creed Ambre Canelle, ambergris tincture 
• Excerpt: "Ambergris - the ambergris that I smelled all alone on that blotter strip - was beautiful.  So beautiful that I contacted a perfumery supplier and ordered a tiny amount of ambergris tincture for myself - not to make perfumes with or to wear - just so I'll always have the ability to smell it again. And I know that I will want to smell it again. Exquisite fern of nature, ambergris in this minute quantity is among the most praise-worthy things I have ever smelt.."

Hidden Joy
February 2008

• Poetry: "Nothing is Lost" by Noel Coward
• Perfume: Jean Patou Joy, Chanel No. 5
• Portrait: Janet Gertrude Andrews (nee Fisher) my maternal grandmother
• Excerpt: "I held a bottle of real perfume for the first time when I was six or seven years old.  I found it in my grandmother's bedroom drawer and I was amazed at that tiny bottle with the word JOY imprinted on the label.  It was a strange, beautiful object made even stranger by the fact that nothing about my grandmother seemed joyful or elegant or even pleasant to me at that time."

The Occasional Pie
February 2008

• Poetry: "The Poet's Occasional Alternative" by Grace Paley
• Perfume: Perfumes containing a strawberry note
• Excerpt: With over a half-century at the creative helm of one of the greatest perfume houses in history, Monsieur [Jean Paul] Guerlain should understand something about a "responsive eatership" in perfumery."

The Violet Hour
February 2008

• Poetry: "Ode to a Cluster of Violets" by Pablo Neruda
• Perfume: Guerlain Apres L'Ondee, Serge Lutens Bois de Violette, Caron Aimez-Moi
• Excerpt: "I've heard there's a thin line between love and hate, but for as long as I can remember, I have hated violets.  I hate them so much it's hard to locate exactly what I hate about them anymore.  Even more than the flower itself, I hate the scent of violets with their powerful burnt sweetness."

Assia's Dior: A Mystery
February 2008

• Poetry: "Chlorophyl," "Dreamers," and "Fairy Tale" by Ted Hughes; "Quick and Bitter" by Yehuda Amichai
• Perfume: Christian Dior Miss Dior, Diorama, and Diorissimo
• Portrait: Assia Wevill (nee Gutmann) Ted Hughes' lover
• Excerpt: "We know that it was not a perfume that set the events of Sylvia Plath's death in motion, and it was not a perfume that caused Ted Hughes to fall helplessly in love with another man's wife.  The perfume was both a tool and a symbol, it was a skeleton key to a lock that could have been gotten open in any number of other ways.  The blade of grass that launched this poetic mythology was, ultimately, a figment of Assia's and Ted's imagination.  It was something inside themselves they were after."

Fathers, Sons, and Ghosts
January 2008

• Poetry: "My Father's Hats" by Mark Irwin
• Perfume: "L'air de Rien" by Miller-Harris
• Excerpt: "I don't know what Andrew Birkin's hair actually smells like, but the first time I tried L'Air de Rien, I understood perfectly why his sister Jane made the strange request that her bespoke perfume be, in part, reminiscent of her brother's hair.  The fragrance is very close, very strange, very soft in a way and hard to describe.  Like a loved-one's hair, it has an almost spooky quality."

Discovery
January 2008

• Poetry: "A New Poet" by Linda Pastan; "Newsreel" by Cecil Day-Lewis
• Perfume: Love By Kilian
• Excerpt: "There's a silly nervousness to judging the quality of new things, or things new to us.  How do we discover excellence?  How much of what I like is me? Will I recognize greatness when I see it or do I need an anthology or beautifully phrased review to guide me?"

Beauty in the City
January 2008

• Poetry: "Human Beauty" by Albert Goldbarth
• Perfume: Caron Poivre
• Portrait: Diane Haska of Caron New York City
• Excerpt: "In his poem, Albert Goldbarth suggests that a particular beauty exists in the spaces between the inspiration and the imitation. This is the case with Poivre and with many well-constructed fragrances. There is more to experience here than just the raw materials of which the scent is made, there are images and memories, there are shortcoming and hints and tricks of artifice that come to exist between the imitation and the real, and in the reflection on the shape of the space between those things, we create a uniquely human beauty, one of perspective, interpretation and emotion."

Taking Down the Tree
December 2007

• Poetry: "Taking Down the Tree" by Jane Kenyon
• Perfume: Various perfumes with balsam fir/fireplace/smoke notes
• Excerpt: "Lots of people claim that they love real trees because of the scent, but that’s not the scent I associate with Christmas. When I think of “real tree smell” I involuntarily revisit the exploding tree of 1994 and the smell of wax and ash in the house afterward. Then I’m led back to the winters of my high school years which were spent in a house with a wood-burning stove that had a tricky flue."

Unto Whom I Burn
December 2007

• Poetry: "unto thee i" by e. e. cummings
• Perfume: Comme des Garcons Avignon
• Excerpt: "What most intrigues me about Cummings' poem are his images of flowering, fluttering, and crackling incense into which he invests his reverence, sorrow, and ambiguity.  With the language of joy, he seeks to convey deep understanding of the paradox of joy within sorrow."

Orangerie II
December 2007

• Poetry: "Why I am Not a Painter" by Frank O'Hara
• Perfume: Various perfumes with an orange note, esp. Calvin Klein Obsession and Fendi Theorema
• Excerpt:  "Orange seems to span all styles and moods in perfumery.  In an eau de cologne it can sparkle, while in a deep spicy oriental it can lend exotic power and allure to even the most challenging scents."

Orangerie I
December 2007

• Poetry: "Tangerine" by Ruth L. Schwartz
• Perfume: Various perfumes with a tangerine note
• Excerpt: "It may seem a little late in the year to wear bright, mouthwatering concoctions full of tangerine but I, for one, can use a little extra sunshine this time of year.  In the dark months it seems easier to focus on the bitterness of seeds rather than the possibilities they symbolize. These poems, these fragrances, all these things remind me to breathe. Breathe now."

The Descent
November 2007

• Poetry: "To Earthward" by Robert Frost
• Perfume: Guerlain Mitsouko
• Excerpt: "In understanding both poetry and perfume, one part of me wants to remain forever innocent while another part is irreversibly experienced and mourns that I can never fully be either child or adult in either of these worlds. ... I'm still adolescent enough to scratch my head at the great Guerlain Mitsouko, which has been named by several experts as "the greatest perfume ever created" and "infinitely chic."  Me?  I get a big hit of "old lady" with some undertones of pile-of-leaves and dirty windows."

Thank You for Your Gift
November 2007

• Poetry: "Thanks for Remembering Us" by Dana Gioia
• Perfume: Those that have arrived as gifts
• Excerpt: "I'm grateful most of all for things that have come to me by happy accident.  I'm not one who believes that we get what we deserve in life - I'm not even sure we deserve anything.  But some of those happy accidents include reading the right poem at the right moment and experiencing a change in thought because of it."

The Immortal Fig
November 2007

• Poetry: "Vespers [Once I Believed in You...]" by Louise Gluck
• Perfume: Diptyque Philosykos, L'Artisan Premier Figuier, CB I Hate Perfume Revelation
• Excerpt: "With the accumulation of grief and joy, diplomacy and frankness, raw strength and weakness and resilience that equals growing older, I have found a window to Louise Gluck.  I love the dark crevices, the moments of hate and elation.  ... There are perfumes like this as well, ones that feel dark and familiar, ones that go straight for the heart and produce memories of a mythic nature."

Fermenting Joy: Best of Blogs
November 2007

• Poetry: "Grammar" by Tony Hoagland
• Portrait: Boomtown Boudoir
• Excerpt: "Today I applaud the accomplishments of others who, like me, are perfume lovers and for whom that passion spills over into writing."

More Ashtrays to Empty
October 2007

• Poetry: "Smoking" by Elton Glaser
• Perfume: oakmoss absolute, guaiac wood essential oil, vetiver essential oil, tobacco absolute
• Excerpt: "I've been mucking about in the raw materials recently and I have discovered some real, for true, three day-old wet heaping ashtray elements among them.  Let's review..."

Eau d'Ashtray
October 2007

• Poetry: "The Best Cigarette" by Billy Collins; "One Cigarette" by Edwin Morgan
• Perfume: Robert Piguet Bandit, Molinard Habanita, Chanel Cuir de Russie
• Excerpt: "The cigarette breath of a longed-for lover, the smoke in the clothes of a family member who has recently passed away: these are aromas that have power over us in ways we cannot control.  How many non-smokers pick up the habit because they fall in love with someone whose cigarette habit won't be stopped, and so must be joined in order to tolerate the acrid, bitter taste of smoke on the breath and in the skin?"

The Cinnamon Peeler's Wife
October 2007

• Poetry: "The Cinnamon Peeler" by Michael Ondaatje
• Perfume: Serge Lutens Rousse
• Excerpt: "Tonight, my husband is away on a long trip overseas.  He has been gone for over a year and will be home in little more than a month.  It is finally close enough to his return that I can only think of a month apart with open joy.  I bathe and take my time as the water evaporates from my skin, smoothing a few drops of Serge Lutens' sensuous spiced perfume Rousse over my arms - it resonates with raw cinnamon bark, nutmeg, and cedar, wrapping itself around me like an amber veil."

Generations of L'Origan
October 2007

• Poetry: "Handbag" by Ruth Fainlight
• Perfume: Coty L'Origan
• Portrait: My father's grandmother, "Bama"
• Excerpt: "Because my father gave it an identity, Coty Airspun powder has been a part of my make-up kit for over twenty-five years, though I almost never actually use it on my face anymore.  Its presence makes the whole process of daily face-management feel womanly.  Sometimes I simply open the box and inhale it as if doing so would magically add the finishing touches to the ritual."

Measured Out In Coffee Spoons
October 2007

• Poetry: "Toast" by Leonard Nathan
• Perfume: Bond No. 9 So New York and New Haarlem
• Excerpt: "Like many people, my first on-the-job activity most weekdays is pouring myself a cup of coffee.  I like a lot of cream and I prefer, in all its philistine glory, the powdered kind that's not really made of cream.  It has a nuttiness that I have always loved, and I can remember being as young as two or three and sneaking up onto the dinner table after everyone else had moved to another room.  I ate coffee creamer by the spoonful whenever I could get my hands on it. So it's not a surprise that later in life, when I developed a taste for the coffee for which the creamer was intended, I took a real liking to cafe au lait and latte."

Black and White
October 2007

• Poetry: "The Weakness" by Toi Derricotte
• Perfume: Bond No. 9 Saks Fifth Avenue DNA
• Excerpt: "I believe one of the qualities that makes this poem a great one is its intimate, sharp understanding of our secret weaknesses.  I go to perfume stores (including Saks) and even though I feel I know myself, my tastes and more than a little about the craft of perfumery, I'm silently concerned that I will be judged an amateur."

The Smell of Soap
September 2007

• Poetry: "Soap Suds" by Louis MacNeice
• Perfume: Philosophy Pure Grace
• Excerpt: "This soap is a door to the past.  There is no mention of its fragrance, but a listing of all the treasures the big house of his childhood contained.  We can see and almost smell the lawn, a rock wall, dirt and leaves and flowers and honeycombs; the warm fecal smell of small animals, the ocean air.  Our hands trace lines in the dust on a yellowed globe.  These were not features of my childhood but at the poems closing, I grieve the loss of them nonetheless.  I am left with my imaginary hands covered in suds, unable to fully grasp or let go of the experience."

Exceptions to the Rule
September 2007

• Poetry:  "Passing Remark" by William Stafford
• Perfume: Various perfumes from the olfactive families
• Excerpt: "Perhaps, like the man in William Stafford's poem, I generally prefer things that I perceive to be like me.  And then I find things that I like against my own expectations.  The experience is thrilling, it is the essence of feeling alive.  It is discovery and beauty and the wonder of being stretched into a space I never thought I could occupy."

Black March
August 2007

• Poetry: "Black March" by Stevie Smith
• Perfume: CB I Hate Perfume M2 Black March
• Excerpt: "One of the newer offerings from CB I Hate Perfume is from the CB Metamorphosis line and is called M#2 Black March; it was inspired by the Stevie Smith poem of the same name.  From the perfumer, Christopher Brosius: "I have thought about a perfume that reflects this poem for years. Now, it's finished. Both the poem and my perfume contain a secret that you must discover for yourself."

Negative Space
August 2007

• Poetry: "Keeping Things Whole" by Mark Strand
• Perfume: Guerlain Cuir Beluga
• Excerpt: "How is it I love a fragrance that Osmoz call a "floral chypre" when I hate almost all chypres? The answer might have to do with negative space; as important in perfumery as it is in other forms of art.  In perfume, negative space can take two forms: First, there is the perfume built around a concept of an element that (whether it contains the note or not) does not smell like the element but can evoke it when approached from various perspectives.  Cuir Beluga falls into this category for me, and I am not alone."

The Iceberg Theory
August 2007

• Poetry: "The Iceberg Theory" by Gerald Locklin
• Perfume: Guerlain Shalimar
• Excerpt: "For several years now, I've been spellbound by perfumes and perfumers whose names I never would have known, had I not delved into the depths of the niche perfume world. Five years ago, I thought Guerlain's Shalimar was exotic.  It was my first perfume, and in my ignorance of the breadth and depth of perfumery, I believed that I alone had discovered its magnificence."

Mysterious Wisteria
August 2007

• Poetry: "Wisteria" by Philip Levine; "Fuschia" by Charlie Smith
• Perfume: Various perfumes with a wisteria note
• Excerpt: "Like many beautiful things, wisteria's usefulness is a matter of perspective.  Growing over a trellis, it's a common ornamental vine and can almost single-handedly transform a boring overhang into a picturesque garden.  It's not always this well-behaved, though, and can strangle a tree or bush within a few seasons.  In winter, wisteria will look ugly and ragged, but wait until the "bright fluttering" of spring.  Petals cascading like grapes will explode into bloom.  Bring your glass of sweet tea out and spread a blanket near (but not too near) the perfume.  It will find you."

A Pair of Pears
August 2007

• Poetry: "Study of Two Pears" by Wallace Stevens
• Perfume: Annick Goutal Petite Cherie; Jean Patou Sira des Indes
• Excerpt: "All this is to say that Wallace Stevens is exactly right - pears are not nudes or bottles, they resemble nothing else.  But describing the scent of a pear is completely impossible except by metaphor and analogy.  Like stanza five, the yellow pear of Petite Cherie glistens and flowers over the skin but in another, less elegant formulation (or to a less sensitive nose) the pears could simply amount to blobs on a green cloth.  You won't see or smell or taste pear the way I do, which is why it could evoke for one person a breeze through a willow tree and for another, it might be the essence of "eating peaches on the Black Sea beach" with one's grandfather."

Tomatoes
August 2007

• Poetry: "Tomatoes" by Stephen Dobyns
• Perfume: Various perfumes with a tomato or tomato leaf note

Nails of Polished Jade
August 2007

• Poetry: "Le Panneau" by Oscar Wilde
• Perfume: Lolita Lempicka by Lolita Lempicka
• Excerpt: "Lolita Lempicka (LL) is whimsical and mischievous, unintentionally erotic, but not necessarily nubile.  Not even necessarily human.  The packaging and advertising for LL makes the most of its ethereal fairyland qualities.  Purples and lavenders swirl around a silvery dark-haired forest nymph.  She's part Sleeping Beauty and part Morgane le Fay.  Wilde's little ivory girl has "pale green nails of polished jade" and that is exactly the image that connected LL with Le Panneau in my mind.  Lolita may be violet and licorice-colored, but she certainly has green fingernails."

The Urn-Shaped Rosebud
August 2007

• Poetry: "Les Roses XVIII" by Rainer Maria Rilke
• Perfume: Rose notes, including Jean Patou Joy and Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Psyche
• Excerpt: "Not unlike my childhood search for the perfect urn-shaped rosebud, I have been looking for many years for that perfect rosy fragrance that really, truly, smells like fresh garden roses."

Welcome to Memory & Desire
August 2007

• Poetry: "To Ellen at the South" by Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Excerpt: "Poetry was my first passion and has outlived many other of my obsessions. But in recent years it has shared space in my heart with another: perfume. And so, to combine the two in my own mind and to share with others what might also be of worth, this blog is dedicated to poetry and perfume."