Feb 7, 2025
Upon smelling art made with various smells by Eric Fulbright
Here is a series of 15 verses on the theme of art made using the sense of smell, using techniques inspired by the Oulipo movement. These methods include constrained writing, permutations, homophonic play, and procedural generation.
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The Perfumer’s Poem
(A Scented Sequence in Fifteen Verses)
1.
A fragrance folds its wings, unseen, Yet writes a note in air’s refrain— A citrus spark, a musk between A blooming loss and waxy gain.
2.
Lemon leans to linden’s sigh, Cedar keeps a whispered time. Pepper pricks the amber dry, Tuberose turns salt to rhyme.
3.
Invert the air: the pages turn— Rose to ruin, pine to dust. Sandalwood and civet burn Into the script of human trust.
4.
Oud and ink—a scholar’s scroll— A brittle parchment, firelit. A story told in floral coal, Memory folded, tightly writ.
5.
What is a painting made of scent? Not pigment daubed on drying oil, But winds that mix, a space unbent, A sky of myrrh, of cloves, of soil.
6.
A haiku that dissolves on the tongue: Crushed mint in cool hands— Ghost of tea on linen sleeves, Steam braiding silence.
7.
A scratch-and-sniff sonnet in twelve breaths: I. Peel of orange, sharp as a quill II. Wet ink, lacquered in iris root III. Plum-flesh, bruised, then given still IV. Leather, deep as a dusk pursuit.
8.
Perfume as a lipogram— Erase the lemon, ban the rose. No smoke, no pine, no vetiver’s prose— A whisper lost where no one knows.
9.
The palindrome’s perfume spills— Lilac, anise, sandal, sage, A sage sandal anise lilac— Backwards blooms at every stage.
10.
If a sestina were a bottle of spice: Nutmeg, thyme, basil, bay, Nutmeg, thyme, basil, clove— Bay, clove, basil, nutmeg, thyme.
11.
Here is a sonnet, scented, strange: First, mint—then fennel—then a hush. A candle blown—a smokeless change— A wooden door—an olive crush.
12.
How would a villanelle inhale? The orchard’s breath, the ember’s song. A whisper lost in autumn’s trail.
13.
Erase each noun, let air reveal— [ ] lingers after the [ ] It slips through time, a quiet seal, An [ ] half-remembered.
14.
Night is a perfume that no one owns— Bitter almond in the dark, A hush of yew where winter groans, A sigh of musk before the spark.
15.
And so the scented art remains, A line drawn in the breath of years. It vanishes, then blooms again, As wind revises, ink appears.
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This poem employs Oulipo constraints such as lipograms, palindromes, procedural lists, and inversions, while evoking the transient nature of scent as an artistic medium. Let me know if you’d like a variation!