“Of all the ingredients we employ in the creation of a garden, scent is probably the most potent and the least understood. Its effects can be either direct and immediate, drowning our senses in a surge of sugary vapor, or they can be subtle and delayed, slowly wafting into our consciousness, stirring our emotions and coloring our thoughts.”
– Stephen Lacey

“Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains; another, a moonlit beach; a third, a family dinner of pot roast and sweet potatoes during a myrtle-mad August in a Midwestern town. Smells detonate softly in our memory like poignant land mines hidden under the weedy mass of years. Hit a tripwire of smell and memories explode all at once. A complex vision leaps out of the undergrowth.”
– Diane Ackerman

“For many people the scent of certain plants can revive memories with a vividness that nothing else can equal, for the sense of smell can be extraordinarily evocative, bringing back pictures as sharp as photographs of scenes that and left the conscious mind.”
– Thalassa Cruso

“The gardens of my youth were fragrant gardens and it is their sweetness rather than their patterns of their furnishings that I now most clearly recall.”
– Louise Beebe Wilder

“Can words describe the fragrance of the very breath of spring – that delicious commingling of the perfume of arbutus, the odor of pines, and the snow-soaked soil just warming into life.”
– Neltje Blanchan

“My garden, with its silence and pulses of fragrance that come and go on the airy undulations, affects me like sweet music. Care stops at the gates, and gazes at me wistfully through the bars.”
– Alexander Smith

Scent so sweet it governs the senses. Hello everyone and welcome to another exciting week at Prompt Nights. I remember studying  John Steinbeck’s,”The Chrysanthemums.” After reading this particular piece of literature and understanding the author’s point of view; the mere idea of associating scent with good and bad memories seemed intriguing to me. Do you also associate scent with memory? Tonight our task is simple. Write a poem or prose piece regarding the subject of scent. Feel free to explore the various possibilities and pour your heart out. Previously written work is more than welcome. For further inspiration please refer to the two amazing poems below:

The Perfume of Flowers

by Paula Glynn

The fields are filled,
With the perfume of flowers,
Poppies grow and sunflowers thrive,
While dandelions and daisies,
Pop up in the green of the grass,
Bluebells and roses blossom,
Every front door entrance and garden,
Filled with the perfume of flowers,
For it is summertime,
And nature is a beautiful canvas,
Where painters and poets,
Draw and describe the beauty of nature.

The air is filled,
With a beautiful fragrance,
All the perfumes of the flowers,
Combined for the heavenly senses,
And the freshly cut grass,
Smells so fresh and comforting,
For every summer that comes around,
There is only beauty to be found.
Bees, dragonflies, butterflies,
Going from flower-to-flower,
Keeping nature thriving,
And nature is truly beautiful,
The sun shining down upon earth,
Making heaven a place on earth.

And in the woods,
The trees form a cooling shade,
That leaves making woodland wildlife,
Do their work for nature,
For it is a gentle relief,
To be in the cooling shade,
Because this is the perfume of flowers,
Nature and wildlife working together,
To create a paradise only earth,
Knows how to make.

A Dryad’s Tale

by  Andrea Dietrich

One day while passing by a tree, I heard a sigh.
It seemed the oak could speak; I felt my knees go weak,
for like a siren’s song, his whisper made me long
to stop and lay me down upon his shaded ground.

Because the day was hot, I lingered at that spot.
The oak got in my mind because I felt inclined
to slip out of my dress, and yes, I must confess
it was as if that tree had cast a spell on me!

With words of poetry, he started wooing me.
His leaves then brushed my skin. I trembled deep within.
His branches were so lush, I hoped I would not blush
to think each sturdy limb might draw me up to him.

I don’t know how or why, but under summer’s sky
I disappeared into his essence and I knew
the tree had captured me. His wood nymph I would be,
for he and I were one that day beneath the sun.

As if immortal, now I live beneath his bough;
at times I disappear within him, but no fear
lives in me any more because the forest floor
I roam now with great joy; the woodland is my home!

Beneath the firmament, lost in my oak tree’s scent,
I feel completely free, his beauty all I see.
A young maid passes by; perhaps she hears us sigh
and thinks it but the breeze now passing through the trees.

But no, it is but I, beneath the summer sky
locked in my tree’s embrace, and with my new found grace,
I look at her and see the girl I used to be,
and my reality is this sweet fantasy

So pick up a pen and lets begin! As always the prompt will remain open the entire week so that everyone can write according to their own pace and time. Please click on the blue widget below. When it opens be sure to click on “add your link.” Now skip the blanks and proceed directly to “try here” written at the end in small font. It will direct you on how to link your poem. Please visit other Poets and do comment on their poems. Have fun ❤️