Friday, October 03, 2008

Poetry Friday: The Sense of Smell

The Poetry Friday Word/Theme for today centers on our sense of SMELL.

I’ve read articles that detail the link between smells and memories. From the HowStuffWorks site: “Because the olfactory bulb is part of the brain's limbic system, an area so closely associated with memory and feeling it's sometimes called the "emotional brain," smell can call up memories and powerful responses almost instantaneously.”

Boy howdy!

Tell us in your blog post today your observations, realizations, creative aspirations, and hallucinations when it comes to the sense of SMELL. Tell us a story…name the smell that gets you horny…write a poem about the smell of Autumn, or smelling your old boyfriends’ cologne on your new guy.

By the way, you smell really good today.

Have a good weekend, y’all!


13 Smells That Make Mona Swoon (in no particular odor…er…order):

1) Cinnamon rolls baking
2) Sergei, when he sprays on Axe, or Tag, or when he steps out of a shower, or comes back from a run
3) Just-cut grass
4) My kids after a shower, or after a long day of playing outside
5) The mixture of toast, coffee, and cigarette smoke…which explains why I love diner breakfasts.
6) Spicy men’s colognes
7) Wet dog…yes
8) Gasoline from the pump
9) The muddy ground during a rainstorm
10) Fresh-peeled oranges
11) Just-washed sheets hanging on the line on a warm summer day
12) Movie theatre popcorn
13) Christmas (spices, balsam, fruit and turkey)


Reveal

I can smell things other people can't.
I can tell when Sergei's left the stopper out of the tub when I enter the house.
I can smell ozone when no one else can (and I force them to sniff the air with me)
I can smell things burning. From miles away.
I can smell when Blonde Co-Worker makes maple-tinged oatmeal from half a building away.
I know when a skunk is slightly concerned.
I know when a driver two lanes over is smoking.
I can tell when the ham will go bad.
Are you like this?

8 Comments:

At 7:47 AM, Blogger Mother of Invention said...

I forgot boat gas and popcorn on mine! Wet dog???
I still love a freshly lit cig even though I quit 30 years ago! I can smell most anything others can't...at least that's what my husband tells me!

 
At 10:04 AM, Blogger Gary's third pottery blog said...

wet dog and Sergei, oh boy!

 
At 11:39 AM, Blogger Clowncar said...

What a great list! I'm one of those rare ex-smokers who love the smell of cigarette smoke.

Gasoline, freshly cut grass...mmmm. I'l probably steal your format if I can come up with a list half as evocative as yours.

 
At 12:59 PM, Blogger Orange said...

Gasoline smells yucky.

I love that smell of fresh-peeled oranges. There was this Febreze brand air-freshener that smelled like that—that and tangerines. But I ran out of it, and the stores don't seem to carry that fragrance any more. So I sniffed 10 other Febreze fragrances at the grocery store and picked one out—but it turns out to be All Wrong now that I've used it at home. Every room tastes like soap when that sickly smell is in the air, and it lingers. So I went online and ordered 3, no 4 of the orange sprays. Is it silly to pay $6 in shipping for some room spray? You bet yer ass. But the smell is so close to the real thing.

On the down side, when my husband smells fresh-peeled oranges and tangerines, it now makes him think of bathroom stinks being covered up. But who cares?

Raspberries.

Cookies, brownies, cake, or banana bread in the oven.

French lavender. I have soap, linen spray, laundry dryer sachets, underwear drawer sachets, and hand lotion. I wish I could find Yardley English lavender liquid soap, but my local purveyor quit carrying it, and the place I ordered the orange spray from didn't have it either.

I'm very particular about my lavenders. I don't wish to receive un-vetted lavender items as gifts, because if the scent is just a tad off, I don't like it.

I love real maple syrup, but the fake stuff? It smells like a headache.

 
At 7:49 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Way too many favs of my own to get into, but I'm surprised how many and how many 'abilities' we have in common.

Mmmmm, freshly bathed Sergei. *lmao*

 
At 11:55 AM, Blogger Coffee-Drinking Woman said...

Wet dog?
?
?

if you say so...

I can certainly smell things my husband can't, even with my nose half-plugged from allergies. I rarely compare my sense of smell with other people's, though, so I don't know how it stacks up to the general population.

 
At 9:21 PM, Blogger Heidi said...

Ew! Wet dog, not a fan. I am a little put off by your sense of smell. Like, worried you can smell my breath through the computer or something.

 
At 10:39 AM, Blogger Lynnea said...

Yeah, I'm gonna have to disagree with you on the wet dog thing. But all the others float my boat!

As for the reveal, lady you sound like a hound dog! Only time I had smelling powers that strong was when I was pregnant. Both times. Super sensitive to smells.

 

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