The Nose Poems 2009

"It took me more than six months to come up with a poem about her nose . . . yeah, a silly nose can move you so much . . ."

— 3:08 AM Mar 25th

Some of my dear colleagues at Mindworks happily took part in this exciting poetry exercise recently. Perhaps this was the first time that there was any poetic interest in our nose.


My Nose

My nose knows
Where the kitchen lies,
Of bread loaves
And apple pies.

My nose knows
Your heady scents,
Of orange blossom
And vanilla spice.

My nose twitches
In anticipation,
Of silky sheets
And musky nights.

My nose knows
What the touch can’t feel,
What fails the ears,
Beats the eyes.

My nose knows
The passion beneath,
Those innocent looks
And cherry smiles.

— Angelene


Breathe Easy

Two holes, a bone and a show of skin
Some hair to trap the dirt within

To blow, to dig, to wrinkle and make
For Inuits of the Arctic a novel handshake

To catch a cold, to makes a mess
It runs and pokes into others’ business

We all have one but some stand out
The Jewish, the Greek, and Roman no doubt

That besides it makes us look pretty
Unless we talk of Shilpa Shetty

It’s a lesson that we shouldn’t fuss
About our breathing apparatus

— Sridhar



A poem about Nose

“The edge that looks like a beacon on
the horizon,
a dew drop dangling on the leaf . . .
one of the many beautiful jewels of a woman.”

— Adesh



Your Nose

All of them will have your nose
and they will be just as beautiful as you are
I will watch you rub your noses
like we did when i'd pinch
love and smile mischievously
and then bite and let it burn like tulip

They will tell you
your little duckie has your duckie nose

A nose of a dove
that will find us everywhere
nose that will wake me up
that will tease me
and make me cry when we're old
When they leave us alone
that will find us
when our eyes cannot see
nose that wouldn't let me sleep
at nights and not even let me leave

They will tell them
All of you got your noses from them
And I'll tell them —
'Don't blame me,'
and I'll proudly tell your name.

— Salik


The Nose Dare

You can close your eyes
If you want.
I'll still be there.
Just where I was.

I won't disappear.
Because I live here!

You walk with me
Up in the clouds, sometimes.
Where I do not wish to be.

And you let me down
When you walk
As if
You would bury your head in the ground.

You have taken me for many a ride
On foggy, wintry mornings.

You still do that to me
In the ruthless summer sun.

I freeze. I burn.

Yet I never complain.

Through stormy winds or rain ...
In pleasure and pain,
Here shall I remain.

You are free
To close your eyes.

— K Jayalakshmi