Today, our fifth annual Haiku Challenge (if you like, you can check out 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 for inspiration).
Pick a perfume or a perfume house (or really, anything related to perfume), write a haiku about it. Use the simplified English form — your haiku should have three lines, the first line with five syllables, the second line with seven syllables and the third line with five syllables. You can put the perfume name in the title if that makes it easier, and at any rate, don’t stress over the rules of traditional haiku — this is just for fun.
Note: image is detail from The Pond at Benten Shrine in Shiba by Kawase Hasui, 1929.
Perfume free workplace
We still use fresh scent Lysol
On my arm, Lilac
Too many samples
Mito evaporated
I keep buying more
Perfect! But sorry about both — your perfume-free workplace and your evaporated Mito 🙁
Will keep wearing perfume. My quiet rebellion against hypocrisy
🙂
Hah!
Love ’em both!
So aptly named…
violet sweet sickening dread,
Insolence, by Guerlain.
Apologies to all who adore it!
LOL…excellent!
Passed hands-on final
Need new scent to celebrate
Marron Chic en route
Congrats!
I’ve been tempted by Marron Chic – need at least a decant.
On sale at Luckyscent
“An Ode to Jo Malone”
by: Scentfromabove
Jo Malone is best
Nectarine Blossom Honey
Better than the rest
All are mighty good
Fruity, fresh, clean, understood
Choose one, no one could
Nice 🙂
Anticipation.
Spray with utter abandon.
Oh no…a scrubber!
Haha! I hate when that happens!
Ha, I guess that’s the best thing about splash sample vials 😉
So true and so sad! 🙂
Wanted to love you
My Impossible Iris
Violet overcame
And a question… does anyone know what synthetic musk is at the base of Hermes Vetiver Tonka? That’s not what white musk is, is it?
I don’t know what chemical was used, sorry! Doesn’t smell like white musk to me, but I am sure I’m easily fooled…often, perfumers use more than one musk aromachemical, so that confounds things too.
Thanks Robin!
ODE TO SCENT:
Scented from above…
All beings always will love…
Calming, peaceful as a dove.
and…
ODE TO ROSE:
Beauty is the rose…
As delightful to one’s nose…
Gracious is the rose.
If these aren’t exact or follow the rules, I apologize…at least I tried…lol.
Rules, schmules 😉
Testing many fumes
Zeroed in on Teint de Neige
Full bottle worthy
That’ll cost ya!
Yeah, I’ve considered that one several times! Mostly my L’eau d’hiver fits the same need, though.
Chic and self-possessed
In hounds tooth suit and suede gloves
New look, Miss Dior?
The Holy Grail found
At last? Old Diorella
Is forever young
Delightful decay
Is an anomalia
Manoumalia
Love these!
Well done! I esp. love the Miss Dior one.
Ode to my favourite student:
Open the window
Si, abre la ventana
She’s wearing Candy
Ha ha! Love this, 2rista!
2nd that, excellent.
Muy gracioso!
Here’s a free form:)
CdG Black
sweet spice charred
on burning coal
licorice jacketed
in leather
a deep hum,
that holds.
Nice…and Black deserves a poem.
Absolutely! It’s become my favorite CdG:)
Good one!
Cartier’s Le Baiser du Dragon
Your hot kiss showed me
It was true love forever
For me, not Luca.
Lalique Amethyst
A purple whisper
Singing me to sleep each night
Gone by morning light.
My On-Again, Off-Again Affair With Lorenzo Villerossi’s Alumut
Unpredictable
The scent this time from
The ruby bottle.
My Latest Perfume Purchase
I love this fragrance
But I’ll soon love another
My nose is fickle.
Love the last one!
So true
All great and especially Allamut!
Thanks everybody!
Yes, Alamut and I have been having a love-hate relationship for years. The bottle is consistently beautiful, though, and I saved the first empty one. (I can’t believe a bought this a second time! What was I thinking?)
Ah yes, I know the challenge of a fickle nose, too! Bad on the wallet!
Dzing! by L’Artisan Parfumeur
Homeless baby boy
Sitting on cardboard boxes
Pooped in his diapers
I hope you don’t mind me putting a link here, but I regularly write perfume haikus over on my blog: http://thesmellyvagabond.wordpress.com/haiku-series/
If it’s against the rules of Now Smell This, feel free to delete the link and I’ll re-comment without it! 🙂
Not against the rules at all, to include relevant links.
Smelly Vagabond, I just spent some time browsing your website. Your vintage Miss Dior review is wonderful! I’ll plan to stop by from time to time.
(I would have commented there, but I’ve gotten into a Catch 22 with WordPress. I only used it to set up my gravatar account, and now every WordPress blog wants me to log in order to comment. I can’t figure out quickly how to do that, though.)
Hermes Eau de Mandarine Ambrée
You teased me
on a deserted airport…
You’ll be mine soon!
Cacharel Noa
You give me
what no one else can…
Instant migraine!
Noa cracked me up…
One day I’ll tell you the story… BIG headache… and I couldn’t run away! 🙂
Ouch. Really only a couple perfumes have given me headaches…most recently, Serge Lutens Laine de Verre.
I like the artwork
Robin chose for today’s poll
Today’s scent: sunscreen
Agree about the picture! And love the perfect poetic form, lol:)
Took me a minute to get it, ha!
To Some, A Horror,
To Me, Love In A Bottle,
Gucci. I’m Guilty!
ha ha!
Excellent!
Clever!
Through this blog found more
The Non Blonde a current fave
Haiku for Hakuhodo
Also love The Non-Blonde and your “Haiku for Hakuhodo”!
nice! (had to google hakuhodo)
not a lazy poll
seventeen syllables work
brain on Saturday
🙂
So true!!
Good one!
I’m not sure my brain will be able to make it happen today!
I love this prompt!
One of my favorite scent memories:
Worn in Tuscany
Lemon soap scent day and night
Caleche memories
Based on events of this evening:
Woman at party
wearing vetiver divine
I rushed home and dabbed
Oh, now I might have to wear Caleche today!
Encountering vetiver on someone else is worth celebrating! Going to join you in spritzing some on right now.
Bertrand Duchaufour
Tries to combine many things
Creating one
(Sorry, the first experience to write in English :))
Oh, but it’s perfect!
And clever of you to notice that Bertrand Duchaufour makes a perfect first line. We could do an entire Haiku weekend just on his many diverse creations! 🙂
In yesterday’s mail:
Jicky extrait, a classic
Spring in a bottle. 🙂
Nice! And such a nice thing to come in the mail. New or vintage?
Not vintage, but pre-LVMH. The problem is I have another bottle (newer) which I really should sell rather than hoard! 😉
Well, that’s reasonably vintage, right? Either way, congrats, the extrait is so gorgeous.
How many lines again and how many syllables? 😉
This one is for another CdG – my first niche fragrance: Ouarzazate.
Ouarzazate
I cannot
say your name
or even
recall its meaning
but you
were a strangeness,
that came in
striding,
bare feet tracking
desert sand
and turban
redolent with spices,
impelled
by a smoldering
of precious resins,
burning and blessing
like a prophet,
sweet-holy and
astringent.
Lovely — and another great scent that deserves a poem.
Wow! That is beautiful and worthy of publication! It makes me curious about the scent — will need to read up on it.
It’s definitely worth trying. Avignon and Kyoto, and even Zagorsk, are mentioned more often, but there is a reason that Ouarzazate has its own devoted following.
And Jaisalmer does not even get a slight wave of the hand? 🙂 I have heard that Montale’s Full Incense is the most magnificent of the various incense scents available, but have not yet tried it…
Thank you:) In the long haul it is not a scent I have worn very very often, but it certainly is an experience!
Haie Fleurie
An offhand mention
I go hunting on ebay
Loveliness arrives
Ah, glad you found some! Can’t imagine there is much of it left.
Black tea and almond,
Sour cherry and licorice,
La Petite Robe Noire.
Perfect description!
Thierry Mugler,
I Love Pure Coffee So Much!
Just One Word, AMen!
House of Estee Lauder.
Love and when it wasn’t
Memories when we were joined
I’ve changed, you haven’t.
Oops dumbo, can’t count syllables.
I do like to edit, don’t I?:p
Love, when it wasn’t.
Memories when we were joined.
I’ve changed, you haven’t.
Poison
Cinnamon nectar
Woods and incense that caress
Purpuraceous tuberose
Ineke Evening
Currents of golden
Keeping my eye, nose awaits
The night enters through
Chanel Beige
Butterfly petals
Exhale sweet honey dew
Bathed in the warm sun
Polo
Silly high school boys
I never wanted to date
But they smelled so great.
Mits
Polite with a tease
Curtsied with feminine peach
Matures to black lace
Shalimar
Sweeping, silk veils
Stippled citrus, smoky vines
In milk suede seating
Oud have thought it hey?
Rotten wormwood in the air
Perfumistas stink.
This literally made me choke on my tea. Can I post this on Twitter?
Of course. 🙂 And no offence intended to all the wonderful perfumistas on this blog who know a good oud from a bad one… 😉