Fragrance Poetry inspired by Black Orient from Bulgari.

Like leather laced with lava-lake,
I bit into the bitter bud.
It yanked my youth of yesterday
To Make a man from mud.
Riddled with resins and rum,
I swallowed the sachet of spice.
Once dredged and drained, was done,
Lifting this leper to life.
By fire, free-men are formed:
Chasten a cherished child.
Through tears and terrors, heβs torn.
But after smoke and smolder. . . heβll smile.
I just wanted to say I had a lot of fun writing this one. I like to play around with difference styles of poetry, including free-form. But I threw a bunch of techniques in this one – rhyme, rhythm, alliteration and symbolism. A nice contrast from the one I wrote before this – “Wood Essence” – which was barely written as poetry. But hey, why not change things up?
Unfortunately, Black Orient from Bulgari was a limited run and now discontinued. So, my poem may be the only way you can ever experience it. Read Secret Garden from Aftelier. Β© TheFragranceWriter.com 2020, except where noted otherwise. All rights reserved.
Wonderful!
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Thanks π thanks for stopping by and for a wee smirk
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Bravo!! A wonderful piece. Lovely lines, “riddled with resin…by fire, free men are formed” Powerful imagery all. A fun read. Well done Jay. β€ππ₯
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Thanks! It’s kind of Biblical, right?
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Yes! Exactly…the refiner’s fire!! Amen.β€
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Amen π have a great Wednesday, Suzette!
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I had fun reading this one! The opening was so nice and then you kept up that “lava”-like energy. Inspiring!
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Thanks Bejamin! I think all the alliteration and rhyming makes it fun to say π€£
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You’re right. I really like this one a lot!
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Well thanks… I’m very honored!
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And you as well Jay. Thank youπ
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“By fire, free-men are formed: Chasten a cherished child. Through tears and terrors, heβs torn. But after smoke and smolder. . . heβll smile.” π
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ππ
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Not sure how I feel about tough love from a perfume, but I enjoyed the alliteration and imagery!
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hahaha well when you put it like that! Btw I talked a lot about my new Aftelier samples on my blogs Instagram, but I’m assuming your blog isn’t on Instagram?
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Not on Instagram. Will you also be writing about them here?
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Nah. I try to leave any reviews just for Insta, and WP just for my poetry. B) But I’ll copy and paste here the main parts where I was talking about the two most expensive ones.
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The thing that strikes me the most is… how much the ancient ambergris actually does smell like amber-woods. When you smell artificial ambergris [ambroxan] in something like the new dior homme or dylan blue (just to use examples that are easy to be familiar with), – obviously there is no comparison but you can really begin to understand where they were coming from in copying that note. Mandy mentioned in Fragrant that there are many types of Ambergris that smell different. Now I can really see the Ambergris/Amber-Woods connection. If you threw some Bergamot on-top, you’d have a modern masterpiece blend like so many popular ones today but… at a depth that can’t even be put into words.
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Next thought. . I am so wowed my smelling the real osmanthus. I recently bought a commercial osmanthus fragrance. But with Parfum Prive on my arm… wow… it’s like having the actual flower there!
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It all sounds delicious.
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She has a chocolate one that smells so delicious I want to literally bite into my arm. Also a cepes one
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Also I didn’t mention, but smelling authentic civet and castoreum (Cuir Gardenia seems to be a great example of Castoreum, and Secret Garden for the Civet) I was surprised how much I liked them. The artificial ones are much more cutting and unpleasant… just more fecal. The real ones can be that way more when spraying on paper, but on skin, the rough edges smooth out and your left with something more buttery or nutty and smooth
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And then finally for the Ouds, there is strong barnyard oud in Sepia. It is quite off putting. But the more I smell it, the more I like it or get addicted to it, like an acquired taste. I am nervous if I like it too much, I may start wearing it and driving everyone else around me crazy. One of her most famous ones, Momento Mori, always gets a strange smell on my skin (maybe at least partly responsible to the oud). But it gets a cheesy-butter facet. From what I’ve read, this seems to depend on your skin type. So not everyone get’s it. That fragrance is beautifully complicated and multi-faceted, other than the cheesy-butter that comes off of my skin
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The naturals may be pungent sometimes, but they are rich, not harsh like some of the synthetic versions (especially with woods).
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Yes. It’s weird because it is barnyard but also rich and transparent at the same time, like a cloud. You can’t just hone in on one spot, like a 2D synthetic one
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(It yanked my youth of yesterday)
Potent fusion of nature’s natural ingredients combined with synthetic chemistry (man-made made ingredients), so it can last longer, carry further and stay true.
The joy is felt, I’m happy you found your aroma after the smoke and smolder, a beautiful and happy smile.
The poetry lesson is a very valuable gem , thank you
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Thanks I love your comment. B) I love this part you said “Iβm happy you found your aroma after the smoke and smolder,”
looks like you are learning a lot about fragrances, yourself!
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You are welcome. Well you are the fragrant writer so I would take flight to the meadows and perfume refineries to gather my thoughts.
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so poetic π
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π, thank you.
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I was already sold at “Like leather laced with lava-lake”…cool wordplay, Jay
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Thanks Navin. I was sold at “Lava-Cake” but decided that didn’t fit as well B)
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Lol@lava-cake….well, people would’ve started to wonder
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Maybe I can make a non-sensical twist to my poems sometime
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Can I just say that this was a masterpiece? You’ve outdone yourself XD
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Wow you leave me speechless ! This one was for mental fun and wit, kind of like assembling a puzzle π
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nice one Jay. Sophisticated and mysterious. Another beautiful poem created by you.
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Thanks so much Sanjana π how have you been? Busier now with quarantine ending I bet
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Yes busy for sure. I think I’m more busy after quarantine than before haha. How are you and how’s things your end
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It’s good I feel so exhausted after doing something that uses to be normal like going to the mall. Not sure if I’m ready for quarantine to end LOL
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Wow, such vivid imagery and dexterous depth. I love this .
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Thanks π dexterous depth… I like that one!
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Haha, yeah
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Wow coincidence we were talking abt mystery and here this one is mysterious
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Why thank you. I think exotic spices are a bit mysterious B)
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π ππ π
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Such a fascinating rite of passage!
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Rite of passage… I like that! π
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“I swallowed the sachet of spice.
Once dredged and drained, was done,
Lifting this leper to life.”
I love these lines, about sachet of spice and lifting the leper.
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Thanks! Thanks for finding me!
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