Today, our sixth annual Haiku Challenge (if you like, you can check out past years for inspiration). This year, we're expanding the challenge to include other forms of poetry. Have a perfume-related limerick or a sonnet you'd like to share? Please do.
If you're writing a haiku, pick a perfume or a perfume house (or really, anything related to perfume), and 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 Bamboo Garden by Toshi Yoshida.
SOTD= Muguet Fleuri
Sitting at Starbucks-
Lily of the Valley and
coffee in my nose!
Lovely! And enjoy your coffee 🙂
~ ~ ~Shackuhachi plays ~ ~ ~
an iris twilight
all in violetted hues
Nazarena wafts
SOTD ~ Iris Nazarena
oops, that should be Shakuhachi 🙁
Auto spell checker has made bad spellers of us all! You can preface many a slip of the finger with “Stupid spellchcker!” LOL!
Much more poetic than mine…plus I know I need to get a sample of Iris Nazarena! Do you wear it often?
Frequently, meredifay, lovely lovely iris 🙂
Lovely haiku!
All houses have one
Don’t like, always ignore it
Too much oud out there
Today I have on Byredo La Tulipe.
Oh, perfect!!
Love this!
(This haiku captures the moment of me trying Si for the first time, full of hope and my undying love for Cate Blanchett.)
Oh, dear Giorgio,
Why are you doing this?
No, no, no, no, no.
LOL — excellent. And can’t blame Cate, she didn’t make it 🙂
That made me snort with laughter.
Ditto :).
I love the good folks at Now Smell This,
But haikus are hellishly dev’lish;
So, like cheap perfume,
I’ll now clear the room
With a limerick loud and rebellioush.
Nice!
This made me laugh — thank you!
Bravo!
Encore! Encore!
Woo Hoo!!
Haiku for NST; punctuate as you will
a community
we all smell of all places
on the internet
Perfect!! And we needed our own haiku.
The scent of amber,
He said, is suffocating,
Like resin to flies.
—
A kitten musk, warm
and honeyed. Soft, like footsteps
tip-toed after dark.
No scent yet today, but I think I might wear Cologne Pour Le Soir.
Oooh, I love them both!
Iris Poudre
Cloud of aldehydes
Floating over my pillow
City awakens
Nicely done!
Paestum Rose
Roses, incense smoke
Rising in the autumn air
As in Ancient Rome.
And this one I composed yesterday while browsing in Sephora:
This place once contained
the finest classics but is now
a wall of sugared fruit.
Too true.
That’s such a perfect description of Paestum Rose. 🙂
Sniff the gentle air
A flower blooms somewhere near
My heart is content
SOTD is De Profundis, and my haiku offering:
Perverse Serge Lutens –
Why won’t you ship your bell jars
To the USA?
I thought they sold all the bell jars here now, on the US site? (great haiku anyway though)
Really? Good heavens, I never even thought to look! I was even trying to come up with an appropriate, er, incentive for getting a friend in Europe to mule a bottle in for me. Off to check out the website instead. 🙂
They have them at Barney’s. If they are not available at Barney’s website, call and ask to speak to someone at Lutens or at Fragrance. They will not be be cheap, but cheaper than a ticket to France.
P.S. I have no affiliation with Lutens or Barneys.
Yesterday’s Sotd was Dior Homme 🙂
the lenticels dribble a
deep – and sticky sweet –
iris liqueur
Ode a la vie green
Lush forest blooms after rain
We celebrate life.
SOTD Yves Rocher Ode a la Vie.
(Robin’s picture beautifully illustrates this scent of green, floral and wood notes: Top, water bamboo and galbanum. Heart, cyclamen, water lily and violet. Base, cedar, sandalwood and transparent musk.)
Love the challenge and all the poetry, especially the funny ones!
SOTD is Bottega Veneta Knot.
Green dots on my scarf
smile with me through the silky
orange blossom day.
This is so pretty!
I have more fun with limericks:
There once was a dame from old Boston
Whom scents sweet and fruity they were lost on.
She said, Vol de Nuit
For me it shall be.
The rest they can keep all their tops on.
I love it! VdN is one of my favorites.
Good job!
reading the haikus
constantly reaching for the
missing “Like” button
Same here. Cannot decide which ones to comment on, as I like all of them…
Ditto.
I know, we try to keep up but we are still old school. Sorry!
Robin, I appreciate old school in this case (as in perfume). This blog is easy to use and looks great, too. I follow another blog that has many function buttons, and the result is constant software problems (including both disappearing and duplicate comments), with much space taken up by complaints and discussion of the problems. The Haiku Challenge is the only time I wish I could applaud without commenting when I have nothing to add. Such a creative and insightful community here!
Well good then. Because we will never catch up to all the social media functions, and I have a hard enough time keeping what we already have working…
Great virtue in simplicity! One of the many reasons I enjoy coming here. You do a really great job, Robin!
God! Three boxes worth
Secure with oodles of tape
Now, Freschiiissimo
I don’t think I can ever move. Hope everything arrives safely!
Poem
The joys of fantastic plastic
Bought some perfume that never lasted
Oh oh how all the perfume I adore
Will only purchase samples I swore
Trying a new scent.
Don’t care if hubby likes it.
Must have full bottle!
SOTD is Le Labo Lys 41 from a swap. Might have to be birthday present to self next month.
A woman ( or man!) after my own heart……
Woman
🙂
Applied to my skin
It transforms my heart and soul
Psychotropic scent.
Lovely.
I am in hysterics over here! Y’all are so clever! And talented.
My own is far more grouchy, as I sit here with my butchered chypres…
Fragrances destroyed
Decimating ancient art
I hate you IFRA
Bravo!
Purse perfume samples
In case of emergency
Pour on wrist. Inhale
So true! Good one, goddessrena!
Awesome!
Ancient scents evoke
smoke filled church. I need an in-
-cense intervention
SOTD is Tom Ford London
A nice one 🙂 I also wanted to ask what you think of London? It’s one of the few Fords that I have never tried and the notes sound good.
Very nice, but then I am a sucker for smoke and incense. The smoke departs within the first hour, but the incense lingers; spices are present but not all that strong; and the dry-down is quite similar to Oud Wood.
Thank you! Definitely want to try now.
How original…
A fruity floral full of
pink pepper, and musk.
Ha ha ha ha!
24 Faubourg
Happiness in a bottle
I smell fantastic!
Wore Caron Poivre
Boss says What smells of dentist?
I do not confess
LOL!!!
Thierry Mugler Angel
The first fruitchouli
You can clear a room with this
Do not overspray!!
no talent for this
rather spray perfume on wrist
carnal flower bliss
Ha! I think I did it!
Love reading these! My entry, reflecting today’s activities:
Rummage sale today
So many perfumes offered
Alas, none I want
Sandalwood, incense,
aldehydes everywhere. But!
Jasmine bath for me.
A long train ride hom
Smelling of everything
Sniffapooza
A ha, so you were at Sniffapalooza as well! I just got home!
Ah yes, and for some reason,and I ended up being sprayed with numerous variations of oud and white flowers. I was so over scented (with clashing scents) that I was careful not to sit next to any one and felt desperate to scrub myself with up scented soap.
Queries : who at Guerlain thought that brides want to smell like candied almonds? Who at lmhv decided to keep Dior and Guerlains classic scents in the official line up but not to actually have bottles for sale even in flagship boutiques and who the heck are these sixteen year olds for whom the industry is creating ultra sweet scents at upward of 200 dollars (and why don’t they give since Pravda,s candy is available at malls at a lower price and much better)
Actually it was a lovely day. I just have a case of the post hectic grumps.
Love “post hectic grumps”. Definitely stealing it.
The prior post was sent from an Ipad prior to the ingestion of morning coffee. All typo’s are the Ipad’s fault. The horrific run on sentences are my fault.
31 Rue Cambon today
Long ago memories
Haiku in school
Haiku no more
Ha!
Spray Magie Noir
Close eyes, inhale, reminisce
1986
SOTE Magie Noir
Magic!
Perfect!
Wonderful reading all your haikus tonight!
Today we had a memorial for my late father in law who died in January. I decided to go scent free because at least one person in the family is sensitive to perfume. I also had massage clients before and after the memorial, so I am completely exhausted.
When I got home I sprayed on some Santal Carmin from a very generous nst godmother who has sent many of us care packages (I’m talking about Hajusuuri). I can smell the sandalwood and there is something else I can’t identify that is making it very lovely. My nose isn’t quite 100 percent because of hay fever, but what I do smell is divine.
Here’s my haiku:
Goodbye papa dear
You were so kind to us all
Nature enfolds you
Lovely, honoring him this way
Agree: succinct, but so gentle…
They’re just molecules
and receptors in the brain
and yet this magic.
One year down the hole
fell in this exquisite hour
stuck here for a while.
Portrait of a lady
Gender-bender patchy-rose
Does make one wonder
Are you man enough?
My little effort.lol
And:
I don’t care what Turin says
This bottle brims of sunshine rays!
Flower power and vanilla shower
Sunshine makes me feel like Summer.
Love ‘flower power and vanilla shower’! (And ‘gender-bender patchy-rose’!) 😀
I got the call one day in Summer
Clyde said “I think this one’s a stunner!”
I rushed through the taffic
cause it sounded terrific
And then I found bliss
It was indeed IRIS GRIS….
Haha!Hope you guys enjoyed my little poetic efforts!!x
Nice 😉
Lol!Thank you friend!
Apparently I rushed through typing as well…*Traffic
So this was inspired by last year’s challenge – but I finished it way after and so never posted it 😮
Mugler’s Angel
Fast forward peach ‘n plum
ripen melon poised
to drop
then rot in a mouldy
mulch furry roots
twitch over the goo
and tap
leaves scratch at the
fruity sky where stars
shiver blue
and
sparkle.
Beautiful.
A mix of the gorgeous and the grotesque, which I guess is how I experience Angel! Also somewhat hallucinogenic.
I think many of you will know this feeling:
All in my closet
No sunlight and stowed safely
No worries for me!
Happy Sunday!
Loving the poems! What a wealth of talent here! So here goes my attempt for my Tauer SOTD:
Pentachord Auburn
Root beer, Big Red gum, plastic
Hmmm. I don’t think so.
Ode to the Need to Have an Offering
To satisfy a summer Category
There once was a brand named Malle
For a nose to follow her inner call
But a summer citrus is so sellable
as to inspire Cologne Indelible
The marketers have taken the ball.
Burn. Nice.
SOTD – L’ombre dans leau
French spring smuggled
into South Africa’s
winter
blackcurrant bushes and
hedges of rose
hug the path that
twists towards
a hidden
pond-full
of silvered
shadow.
Eek…sounds like some light plaguerising from the 4 Quartets 😮
If you’re going to steal, steal from the best!
I enjoyed this.
Agree 😀
Woke up late still commando
a little later
Malle’s Cologne Indelible
P.S. I have a sample from Barneys
Twenty-four hours after
Sniffapalooza
Awash in perfume samples
Sorry, Ive got you beat. I am awash in bottle of perfume!! Sniffa’s lucky raffle winner. Still have not taken it all in. Will be sampling for a long, long time…..Had great fun with Daisy, Hajusuuri and all of our fellow fragrance peeps.
Pink crystal grenade
Sweet smoke, flowers and tea
Pretty Flowerbomb
Cuir de Lancome smells
too weak for my ‘eighties taste
Into the swap pile!
I am terrible at this…
A solid contribution.
Here’s mine:
The sniff test. Fuzzy
face leans in close. Sandpaper
tongue licks approval
Oh, I like your image! In my house, the dog jerks away and sneezes.
Yes, you are lucky – mine also does the jerk and sneeze!
Gracias! One of my cats is a perfume lover. He sniffs, considers, then licks. It’s pretty cute. The other shares your dogs’ approach 🙂
Wanna trade? Just kidding! 😉
Aw! I love it when my kitties are interested in my perfumes. One is like a magnet whenever I spray anything that’s predominantly rose. The other… Well, if you can imagine a cat sneering, that’s her.
One more :p
Shalimar
Gilded bergamot
buried in a
sandalwood chest
lying on a
bed of incense
your hands
are leather
your skin
leather
your love –
moving
in veins
of molten
most
subterranean vanilla.
So far I have only seen haikus and limericks, so I figured this poll needed at least one sonnet. Here is my effort (with apologies to John Milton):
On Her Lemmings
When I considered how my purse was spent
In this perfume world of hundred ml size
And that one asset which all others buys
Lodged with me empty, though my heart still went
Into raptures of joy for each new scent
Which, whenever to neck or wrist applied,
Did give me cause to swoon—“HG” I cried.
“Do you perfumers care that I have spent
My grocery money, and even my rent
To buy your perfumes, and also denied
Myself new clothes or shoes”, I asked, then sighed
“There’s but one thing to do”, and so I sent
My excess perfume off for decants in swap.
No more to pay two hundred bucks a pop.
Fabulous! And as far as I’m concerned, more edifying than the original 🙂
Impressive and true!
*applause*
Searching high and low
Going through drawers like mad
Have I lost my Wit?
The road to Heaven?
Follow the trail of peaches
Into Shangri La
Taking Tea for Two
In a Dune near Timbuktu
With Madame Coco
Well, like you said, one
Can have too much vanilla
I’m not an Addict
This is wonderful.
Oh wow,this needs to be in a book of Haikus!!Simply wonderful.
Didn’t realize they were separate haikus! Having Addict and going on and off it I particularly relate to the last 🙂 Then again – I relate to losing my wit very well (if not Wit itself). And the second (poetically) is my favorite!
Late to the party as I’ve been in and out all weekend, but you guys are terrifically talented! What a fun read.
SSS Champagne de Bois (today’s SOtD)
Champagne bubbles sing
Amidst the flower garden
While old woods surround
And probably tomorrow’s SOtD, Nahema
Somewhere roses bloom
Deep in a tangled garden
Ripe peach trees wafting
Portrait of a Lady
Red rose beside church
Incense drifts out open door
Damp earth under all.
Amouage Gold Woman
Elegant lady
Bashes me on the head with
Incense and flowers
My SOTD today for my birthday