Tag: Anosmia

A man and a woman sit at a kitchen table that’s draped romantically with a white tablecloth and a rose at its center. The woman in a pretty frilly collared dress looks judgingly at the man who is about to dig into his plate of meat, potatoes and greens with gusto. The fridge with magnets, a stove with simmering pot, and wood floors leading to another door are in the background. Scent tentacles reach out of the objects in their respective colors: purple for the wine, red for the rose, brown for the meat, etc. Illustration by Alabaster Rhumb.

“Anosmia” * Fiction * Tara Ison

aromatica poetica October 26, 2023

It’s early days yet (a casual omelet bar meet-up, then a nice though not too-pricey bistro dinner), but she thinks it’s going well, so far. Her friend Jean thought they’d hit it off, that Rose would like this public defender guy Jean met at some wedding and interrogated over the tarragon chicken, on Rose’s behalf, about his relationship status; Jean said he checked all the boxes Rose thinks are important, and so felt fine passing along her number. She and …

Black and white illustration of a woman sitting at a desk looking at her computer screen from a back/side angle. Her hair is in a loose bun on the top of her head and she’s wearing a tank top. Beside her is a window with curtains that are bunched and tied revealing a night sky: a crescent moon and some stars beyond. Glowing light shows a portion of face and arm, but all is mostly black. On the desk is a big computer screen, keyboard, a cup with pencils, and some books, a tissue box. On the screen is a color promo photo of Chanel N. 19, Paris, Parfum—a rectangular bottle of amber perfume that sits on top of its pearl-colored box. By Alabaster Rhumb for The Sillage Series.

Sillage 1: Chanel No. 19 * Poetry + PROSE * Jehanne Dubrow

aromatica poetica September 6, 2023

Aromatica Poetica is delighted to present the first in a new series called Sillage by Jehanne Dubrow. She is the author of several books of poetry and prose that dance with our heart’s senses, including Taste: A Book of Small Bites, which we highly recommend! Each of the 12 poems are written in the voice of a specific perfume—this first one is Chanel No. 19—and were begun during the height of the pandemic. For this Sillage series, the poems are …

An impressionist painting of aromas emanating from roses, lemons, eucalyptus leaves, with dots of scented colors like spices in the air. Thanks to OpenAI DALL.E for this one!

“I Never Labeled My Spices: An Elegy To Olfactory” * Nonfiction * Alice Eakes

aromatica poetica June 21, 2023

I lost my sense of smell. This nasty little virus sweeping the world, killing millions, invaded my home in January 2022 despite vaccinations and other protective protocols. My symptoms were somewhere between mild and life-threatening. I rode it out, and in the end, I discovered I no longer possessed the powerful olfactory sense that has been my lifelong companion. My first-grade teacher is responsible for my ability to identify just about anything from smell. She figured if I would eventually …

A night out laden with Mexican deliciousness: Enchiladas, rice, beans, quesadillas, guacamole, salsa, with a red cup, on a colorful tablecloth.

“A Night Out at the Anosmia Restaurant” & Other Poems by Philip Raisor

aromatica poetica April 28, 2023

A Night Out at the Anosmia[*] Restaurant I accepted the offer from the pale estuary of fingers pinched on two thin slices of jicama tapped lightly with lime and a weathered rim of sweet chili powder. “Gracias,” I said in my best Ricardo Montalbán lip-sink. Friday night at our favorite Mexican franchise. “Can you taste that at all?” she asked. I sucked and replied that even where math was the official language, I was a zero. “Can you even smell it?” I …

An illustration of Ernest Gilman, wearing a red polka-dot bowtie, blue shirt, and brown jacket, sitting on a New York City subway with his fancy briefcase reading. Thanks to his anosmia, he is unaware of the toxic-looking green vapors emanating from the homeless man rummaging in his many bags nearby and traveling right beneath his nose, and therefor remains unperturbed. By Alabaster Rhumb.

Anosmia: My Newly Discovered Disability * Nonfiction * Ernest Gilman

aromatica poetica September 1, 2021

“ Par ma foi !” cries Molière’s would-be bourgeois gentleman M. Jourdain: “For more than forty years I have been speaking prose while knowing nothing of it”! I had my own Molière moment just recently when I learned that there was actually a name—and a scientific name at that—for my inability to smell: “anosmia.” I myself might otherwise have come up with a name like “olfactory deprivation,” or perhaps “smell blindness” (I know this is controversial), but I wanted to imply a …

Drawing by the author of objects evocative of smell - a grey pot of boiling orange liquid, its fire obscured by herbs and flowers, a pink tea cup, and cake with blue and green candles.

“To My Sense of Smell” * Poetry * Gabriela Iacovano

aromatica poetica January 28, 2021

*This poem was inspired by the recent loss of my sense of smell since I contracted COVID-19.* passed the season in rose-muddied berry-tinted dairy-clotted clouds tiny porcelain-and-steam pillars sweet smoke spirals ancient resins candied orange when id never eat it lathering creamy wintry bubbles carrying honeyed mists crushing petals breaking seeds laying ferns on cakes blooming magic feels your absence in the glitter and fog of my soup pot oily kale on broth swirling sea plant emerald frills golden …

The Smellicopter. Image courtesy Mark Stone and the University of Washington. A drone with plastic fins on the bag, and moth antennae barely visible. “Smellicopter has two plastic fins (shown here in blue) on the back to create drag to help it be oriented so that it is constantly facing upwind.”

The Olfactory Report 1: Smellicopters and the Smell of Old Books * Catherine Haley Epstein

aromatica poetica January 13, 2021

Aromatica Poetica is delighted to present The Olfactory Report, a monthly column dedicated to the business of our noses. In it scent artist and writer, Catherine Haley Epstein, shares news, thought pieces, reviews and opinions from the olfactory landscape. For our first edition of this one of a kind column, she presents a round up of some of the more exciting events and initiatives of 2020. Despite it being, and continually being, a year full of isolation, dissonance and breaking …