“The Smell Test,” by Noah Stetzer (Poetry ’14)

Noah Stetzer, a 2014 poetry alum, was recently featured in One Art. Read an excerpt of Stetzer’s poem “The Smell Test” below:

The Smell Test

Ten thousand jasmine flowers and twenty
eight dozen roses are required to make
a single vial of this landmark perfume —
to it they add essence from the tropical
ylang ylang tree along with the michelia
magnolia mixed in with the white
star-shaped petals of the tuberose:
a concoction of not one particular earthly
manifestation, but an achievement
of the platonic ideal of a flower… 

Read this poem in its entirety here: https://oneartpoetry.com/2021/10/11/the-smell-test-by-noah-stetzer/