Poetry Friday is hosted today by Cousin Mary Lee, the Poetry Friday Calendar Maven, whose poem today refers to both percentages and rain. Of course, speaking of Autumn dimness yesterday brought me to that, too (to rain, not to percentages; it may be beyond me to make percentages very poetic). Actually, it brought me not quite to rain, yet, but it did bring me to petrichor… I acknowledge the many times I’ve written about the stuff. It just intrigues me – scientific studies about a smell! Petrichor is meant to be what flowed through the veins of the Greek gods. It’s a mysterious aerosolized oil kind of thing. Though we know so much, it remains a mysterious, delightful smell, which makes us even more grateful for the rain.
Sur l’Odeur
petrichor is a patchwork word
roughed out of cliff crags and compost –
the ‘peh’ is a pebble scraped along,
encountering ‘-tri-‘, the signpost
pointing to ‘-chor.’ A conductor’s chord
bids Earth in ensemble, inhale
and breathe a ‘rich’ scent smorgasbord —
a love song of briars and shale.
Happy Friday.
I’ll take that “love song of briars and shale” so much texture you’ve added to this earthy scent, a poem appealing to our senses. Your “conductor’s chord reminds me of the conductor in “The Phantom Tollbooth,” thanks!
Tanita, yes to another poem about petrichor. It is a beautiful subject. I love this one, and the word play with the word, also the background you shared in the paragraph introduction. It is sweet and fragrant. (P.S. Did you post your link on the Mr. Linky page? I didn’t seem to find it there.)
@Denise Krebs: (Oops! You’re right, I never posted it to Mr. Linky!)
Because we have so little rain, I am known to run outside after the brief drops to smell! Yes, I know about ‘petrichor’ & love that you wrote about this word, especially “A conductor’s chord,/bids Earth”. I won’t forget your thought, Tanita. This is lovely.
A poem about petrichor; rhyming “conductor’s chord” with “smorgasbord”…swoon. And then to discover RICH in the middle of it seems ever so appropriate.
@MaryLee: Ooh, what a great inclusion – I’ve edited to add – the insertion of ‘rich’ just perfects this, thanks!
Tanita, your poem is very interesting to me since I have a keen awareness of scents and smells. Love this idea and image: inhale/and breathe out a scent smorgasbord. I think I will share that with my husband since he always is amazed at how I can smell all kinds of things that come my way. But I am truly amazed by the way your crafted this poem.