Poetry exercise: Theme - Scent and memory

FinsburyParkCarrotsFinsburyParkCarrots Posts: 12,223
edited April 2005 in Poetry, Prose, Music & Art
Please write a poem in any form you like, about how a smell brings to mind a vivid memory and sense impression of the past.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • ISNISN Posts: 1,700
    sometimes when you're mad.....
    the world changes....
    people change....
    reality changes.....
    you can get on teh number 12 to Peckham,
    and sit down beside a woman reading a book on Satan.....
    or you can see things that don't exist
    like 'Marijuana se Alquiler'
    'pot for rent' signs in Madrid.....
    and people can hold Satanist cirlces around you
    when you're in the Maudsley & Bethlehem Hospital in Camberwell....
    but the worst thing about going to Hell
    is the godawful smell....
    it smells of sulfur and putrifying bodies.....
    and if you get to taste it....
    you know it'll be over soon.....
    ....they're asking me to prove why I should be allowed to stay with my baby in Australia, because I'm mentally ill......and they think I should leave......
  • mccreadyisgodmccreadyisgod Posts: 6,395
    Optimism
    Has never had a universal odor
    But for me, it's the same every time.

    And I don't know the name
    Of the aroma she wore that evening
    But I catch a draft of it, once in a while.

    And the funny thing is,
    It wasn't all so great in the end,
    But at the moment I smelled that, so much lie ahead.

    And so optimism
    Has a specific odor,
    The smell of new love in springtime.
    ...and if you don't like it, you can suck on an egg.
  • ISNISN Posts: 1,700
    optimism is what they try to put into washing powder brands.....like surf and fab......but really opitimism is the smell of snow on a moonlit night......the click of insects on a summer's day......and the smell of babies......there is no perfume in teh world that could make a loved one smell better.....to the lover.....perfume stinks.....I prefer the smell of my baby or the smell of a real human.....
    ....they're asking me to prove why I should be allowed to stay with my baby in Australia, because I'm mentally ill......and they think I should leave......
  • mccreadyisgodmccreadyisgod Posts: 6,395
    ISN wrote:
    optimism is what they try to put into washing powder brands.....like surf and fab......but really opitimism is the smell of snow on a moonlit night......the click of insects on a summer's day......and the smell of babies......there is no perfume in teh world that could make a loved one smell better.....to the lover.....perfume stinks.....I prefer the smell of my baby or the smell of a real human.....


    Why do you build me up, buttercup baby, just to let me down?
    ...and if you don't like it, you can suck on an egg.
  • ISNISN Posts: 1,700
    I don't know what you mean......hehehehehhe
    ....they're asking me to prove why I should be allowed to stay with my baby in Australia, because I'm mentally ill......and they think I should leave......
  • mccreadyisgodmccreadyisgod Posts: 6,395
    ISN wrote:
    I don't know what you mean......hehehehehhe


    I mean to a 19-year-old kid on prom night, optimism can smell like a tasteful, light perfume.

    Or rather, the smell of that perfume years later can trigger the memory of optimism.

    ...tell me my prom date was the poetic equivalent of laundry detergent...
    ...and if you don't like it, you can suck on an egg.
  • ISNISN Posts: 1,700
    I prefer real smells to synthetic smells.......you can tell your prom date that, buttercup baby.....
    ....they're asking me to prove why I should be allowed to stay with my baby in Australia, because I'm mentally ill......and they think I should leave......
  • ISNISN Posts: 1,700
    you're pretty real......goodnight......
    ....they're asking me to prove why I should be allowed to stay with my baby in Australia, because I'm mentally ill......and they think I should leave......
  • mccreadyisgodmccreadyisgod Posts: 6,395
    ISN wrote:
    I prefer real smells to synthetic smells.......you can tell your prom date that, buttercup baby.....


    Men, set your sarcasm to "stun."
    ...and if you don't like it, you can suck on an egg.
  • This thread shows promise. :D
  • mccreadyisgodmccreadyisgod Posts: 6,395
    This thread shows promise. :D


    This thread shows what happens when you take 8 poets, put them in the same thread, and they stop being poets, and start being real.


    That's right: The Real World, Poetry and Prose Forum.
    ...and if you don't like it, you can suck on an egg.
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Posts: 7,265
    my grandma's attic
    smelled of boxes to be opened later
    reminds me of her boxes
    of pepsi in the basement
    to be drunk in the metalllic colored glasses

    today
    grandma's attic
    is someone else's attic
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • ISNISN Posts: 1,700
    Why do you build me up, buttercup baby, just to let me down?

    if you wanna play games with me.....I'm afraid I'm not biting.....
    ....they're asking me to prove why I should be allowed to stay with my baby in Australia, because I'm mentally ill......and they think I should leave......
  • oldermanolderman Posts: 1,765
    oh no,
    don't go
    down to the crick,
    where rat poison spoils each stick,
    and young boys and girls are in a state of joy...

    please stay,
    whisper the calm of a transient day,
    stay your course,
    press the love which might be coarse,
    play on and enjoy...

    trick the mind if you must,
    lest you deny your crazy lust,
    compounds built in a hippy world,
    crazed degenerates in a swirl,
    focus, forever on your feelings of joy.
    Down the street you can hear her scream youre a disgrace
    As she slams the door in his drunken face
    And now he stands outside
    And all the neighbours start to gossip and drool
    He cries oh, girl you must be mad,
    What happened to the sweet love you and me had?
    Against the door he leans and starts a scene,
    And his tears fall and burn the garden green
  • pinktipspinktips Posts: 40
    ""lift your arm
    so i can sniff
    and inhale deeply
    of your man smell
    the piercing spice
    of you alone
    makes me weak"

    i lov u hony!!

    nobody elz
    comz clos
  • ISNISN Posts: 1,700
    I love the smell of flowers....
    freesias and roses....
    tonight when I walked to the shops
    I heard a baby screaming
    and being slapped....
    and I shuddered and cringed.....
    but I also saw a ripe moon enclouded in spectral mist....
    and I smell the gum trees sometimes
    and listen to the crickets....
    on my walks.....
    there's a house on the corner
    with tall fences.....
    they have roses in the front yard....
    the smell is overwhelming on a warm day
    I love the smell of freshly cut grass
    and freshly washed clothes
    and freshly washed hair
    and freshly washed babies
    wrapped in arms
    I love the smell of flowers
    ....they're asking me to prove why I should be allowed to stay with my baby in Australia, because I'm mentally ill......and they think I should leave......
  • ISNISN Posts: 1,700
    I remember the smell of my first book...
    and the taste and the colour.....
    oh, I wish I had my first book back again....
    it was pink......and it was fairytales (no offence)....
    I wish I was six
    I wish I were small
    and could live backwards
    and grow forever.....
    I want to rule the world.....
    and I want death overcome and silly shit
    I want Kerouac to be pope.....
    I can smell Kerouac
    and Steinbeck....
    I can smell Cannery Row.....
    I can smell War and Peace
    I can smell Portuguese coffee......
    I hate men that smell like fuk
    I remember reading in the Economist
    that the pheronomes are really how
    we become attracted.....
    I hate men that smell wrong
    I want to smell good tobacco right now!!!!!
    ....they're asking me to prove why I should be allowed to stay with my baby in Australia, because I'm mentally ill......and they think I should leave......
  • ISNISN Posts: 1,700


    oh no,
    don't go
    down to the crick,
    where rat poison spoils each stick,
    and young boys and girls are in a state of joy...

    please stay,
    whisper the calm of a transient day,
    stay your course,
    press the love which might be coarse,
    play on and enjoy...

    trick the mind if you must,
    lest you deny your crazy lust,
    compounds built in a hippy world,
    crazed degenerates in a swirl,
    focus, forever on your feelings of joy

    this is great!!!!

    olderman is a man for all seasons.....and he knows all the reasons
    boys and girls go to play......and he's very very gay!!!!
    ....they're asking me to prove why I should be allowed to stay with my baby in Australia, because I'm mentally ill......and they think I should leave......
  • pearlmuttpearlmutt Posts: 392
    "I want to smell good tobacco right now!!!!!"

    You might have to move to cuba.


    Your poem reminded me of two of my favorite smells -- home.

    Books, the smell of walking into a library. I grew up in libraries, that smell is home.

    Tobacco, I grew up a little more in the green fields; there is no warmer smell than fields of tobacco; they really do smell like the sun and heat. You can't replicate the smell in a humidor. There just isn't another to match the fields.
  • ISNISN Posts: 1,700
    I know.....books and tobacco fields.....gotta be two of the best smells.....hehehe
    ....they're asking me to prove why I should be allowed to stay with my baby in Australia, because I'm mentally ill......and they think I should leave......
  • KwyjiboKwyjibo Posts: 662
    whiskey, mixed with stomach acid
    poured all over the cement
    reminds me of that time last year
    when I held you in my arms
    and for once in my life,
    my God, I had nothing to fear.
    The most remarkable thing about you standing in the doorway, is that its you, and that you're standing in the doorway.

    I write down good reasons to freeze to death in my spiral ring notebook. But in the long tresses of your hair--I am a babbling brook.
  • burtschipsburtschips Posts: 734
    My scent is heat
    searing moist heat
    artificial cool in a cabin
    a blanket sledge of heat
    moved into from an air curtain
    crushed under its intensity
    branded by its conviction
    weighted into descent
    heat that scents itself
    Salut baloo
  • oldermanolderman Posts: 1,765
    stale cigarettes,
    ashes in a dish,
    try to sleep next to that..

    can't move,
    nights of black stains,
    stun the sciatic nerve..

    convulse with discontent,
    grasp at the miles ahead,
    the green grass above you has been freshly cut..

    and it's another night in middle america,
    steaks seared to a sizzle,
    another bottle of Syrah please..
    Down the street you can hear her scream youre a disgrace
    As she slams the door in his drunken face
    And now he stands outside
    And all the neighbours start to gossip and drool
    He cries oh, girl you must be mad,
    What happened to the sweet love you and me had?
    Against the door he leans and starts a scene,
    And his tears fall and burn the garden green
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Posts: 7,265
    Intensive care unit smells of cold,
    and darkness smells of a new feeding tube
    or a freshly sanitized linoleum floor.

    This sterile inhalation (through the mouth only)
    cleans out thought
    of leaving
    the same
    as you
    were
    bef
    or
    e
    .
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • Great sig, Bibliobella.
  • oldermanolderman Posts: 1,765
    ISN wrote:
    this is great!!!!

    olderman is a man for all seasons.....and he knows all the reasons
    boys and girls go to play......and he's very very gay!!!!

    it is true ..
    i am a lesbian trapped in a man's body...
    Down the street you can hear her scream youre a disgrace
    As she slams the door in his drunken face
    And now he stands outside
    And all the neighbours start to gossip and drool
    He cries oh, girl you must be mad,
    What happened to the sweet love you and me had?
    Against the door he leans and starts a scene,
    And his tears fall and burn the garden green
  • lengthylengthy Posts: 21
    olderman wrote:
    it is true ..
    i am a lesbian trapped in a man's body...

    Finally! My Dream 8er8 Person! The best of ALL Worlds and what the truly evolved will be.

    I can't even begin to TELL you the fantasies I've had about having a lesbian manbody ravaging me - "is that your arm or mine, are those my toes or yours? No matter, we love us!

    ~ D.D.
  • oldermanolderman Posts: 1,765
    a white hot pill box on an oily beach in the south of Spain,
    wherein youngsters pretend to be soldiers,
    defending the old world from an invasion of salted sea dogs,
    whose tempered leathered skins,
    once ruled the seas and coastlines,
    twice ruled the southern plains..

    the bodegas now are filled with wine,
    gypsies stomp upon the grapes,
    such is the scent of Andalusia,
    this is my memory,
    of the beautiful Senoritas,
    dancing Flamenco,
    clapping Castanedas,
    smiling at me,
    a young man,
    enthralled
    and
    in lust
    Down the street you can hear her scream youre a disgrace
    As she slams the door in his drunken face
    And now he stands outside
    And all the neighbours start to gossip and drool
    He cries oh, girl you must be mad,
    What happened to the sweet love you and me had?
    Against the door he leans and starts a scene,
    And his tears fall and burn the garden green
  • pearlmuttpearlmutt Posts: 392
    olderman, that's breath-taking-ly fabulous, a gorgeous partnering of words.
Sign In or Register to comment.