Covers of Poetry Magazine June 1915-April 2015 courtesy of The Poetry Foundation
Pick up any fashion or beauty magazine, and inevitably designer and mainstream perfume scent strips assault your senses. This is a marketing strategy that has been around for years. Scratch and Sniff has taken on a new, innovative concept. The December issue of Poetry magazine,the oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world asked the perfumer David Seth Motlz D.S. & Durga to translate Jeffrey Skinner’s poem, “The Bookshelf of the God of Infinite Space,” into a custom scent, available to subscribers. The scent is only available as a micro encapsulated scented page on an insert in the magazine.
David Seth Moltz of D.S. and Durga
“I can't tell you how excited I am for this project. I am passionate about pushing the boundaries of perfume. I think our culture is beginning to understand more of perfume's terminology, concepts, and materials. Perfume is also beginning to find its place in the art world. I am honored to be have a piece of perfume in Poetry magazine (whose historic pages has published the poets ALLEN GINSBERG, EZRA POUND, and MARIANNE MOORE!). It the magazine's first-ever perfume collaboration and readers will be able sniff the scent via an included notecard (subscribe before Oct 23rd to sniff it in your mailbox). There is an essay in the magazine that outlines my process for dealing with Jeffery Skinner's playful and expansive poem – “ The Bookshelf of the God of infinite Space".-David Seth Moltz
D.S & Durga/Volatile Scent Studio Photo by Bryan Derballa
Poetry and perfume both utilize the power of suggestion and are capable of creating entire worlds through subtle illusion. Poetry magazine was the first to publish TS Elliot "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock" in 1915, a microencapsulation of a scent is something that has never happened and probably will never happen again.
An exhibition exploring the intersection of poetry and scent will go up at the Poetry Foundation December 11. David will be producing a scent opera — a series of 12 cloches each containing a kind of scent narrative
Please note that the scented edition of Poetry magazine will only be available to subscribers if they subscribe before October 23. Interested readers may subscribe here
-via Poetry Magazine and David Moltz of D.S. &Durga
Editor’s Note: An interpretation of Sonnet XVII by Pablo Neruda by Ellen Covey of Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes, created in 2012 was CaFleureBon collaboration) The Sonnet is featured on the Poetry.org website here
–Michelyn Camen, Editor in Chief
Imagine if every poem had a corresponding scent? What poem would you like Poetry Magazine to scent?