The poem
They haven't got no noses, The fallen sons of Eve; Even the smell of roses Is not what they supposes; But more than mind discloses And more than men believe.
They haven't got no noses, They cannot even tell When door and darkness closes The park a Jew encloses, Where even the law of Moses Will let you steal a smell.
The brilliant smell of water, The brave smell of a stone, The smell of dew and thunder, The old bones buried under, Are things in which they blunder And err, if left alone.
The wind from winter forests, The scent of scentless flowers, The breath of brides' adorning, The smell of snare and warning, The smell of Sunday morning, God gave to us for ours
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And Quoodle here discloses All things that Quoodle can, They haven't got no noses, They haven't got no noses, And goodness only knowses The Noselessness of Man.
Noselessness of Man
I love walking my little terrier Roly but she never goes in a staight line, never follows my path. That's because she is following her nose, like Quoodle the dog. Our logical minds find the quickest way from A to B but there is another path, a path known to our ancestors and still known to animals like Quoodle. It's an awareness of the earth, the way it smells and feels. If we stay in contact with this earth…
Read the whole commentI love walking my little terrier Roly but she never goes in a staight line, never follows my path. That's because she is following her nose, like Quoodle the dog. Our logical minds find the quickest way from A to B but there is another path, a path known to our ancestors and still known to animals like Quoodle. It's an awareness of the earth, the way it smells and feels. If we stay in contact with this earth feeling, we will be closer to ourselves, our sentient selves. We will smell "the old bones lying under" (our ancestors still a part of us) "smell of snares and warning" (we will sense traps and conflicts ahead of time, "the brilliant smell of water" (call to deep sensing and experiencing of nature). In modern life we have cut ourselves off more and more from this feel of the earth, bit like cutting off our nose to keep face.