I Blog Poetry and Prose

Perfume Making: A Lost Art

Kamal (Perfection), 17 Mashiyyat (Will) 177 B.E. - Monday, October 12, 2020

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Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise  (E) Blog City - Every Blogger's Paradise. #1972895 by Lyn's a sly fox

DAY 2262: The Chinese-American author Ha Jin, when asked about what most impressed him when he arrived at the USA, answered: “A chemical smell here. It was very alien, very overwhelming. Also, a lot of people wore perfume. I know a woman who came here from China and said she couldn’t stop vomiting.”
Why are smells so impressive and what do you think of perfumes?

Keeper of Sweet Secrets:
To Mohammed Abdel-Seyed Khattab

Egypt invented perfumes,
Now in Egypt they will end.
Mohammed Abdel-Seyed Khattab

Combining the sweet scented oils of
                                                 roses
                                                 violets
                                                 amergris
                                                 jasmine
                                                 lilacs
the last perfume maker
in the practice of his art
worships Allah

Privy
to the secrets of the ancients
Mohammed Abdel-Seyed Khattab
creates all-natural perfumes
from the scented oils of
                                                 bitter almonds
                                                 anise seeds
                                                 ginger root
                                                 cinnamon bark
                                                 cedar
                                                 sandalwood
                                                 frankincense
                                                 myrrh

The last practitioner
of an ancient and honorable trade
Mr. Khattab
decorates the walls of his shop
with decanters of
                                                 Tutankhamen
                                                 Nefertiti
                                                 Aida
                                                 Harem
                                                 Scent of Araby
                                                 Christmas Night
                                                 Arabian Night
                                                 Scheherazzade
                                                 Secret of the Desert

His legacy
to an unappreciative world
The Devil Runs From The Perfume
waits unpublished
for him to join
the Prophet Mohammad in paradise

Poet's Note: ▼

I wrote this in148 B.E. A story about Mohammed Abdel-Seyed Khattab, inspired this poem.