Who Nose?

Is perhaps 'perception' a sense? Must we must be conscious of our perception in order to perceive it or because we perceive it, we are made more conscious of it? Shall we ask Aristotle...

"The problem might be raised: Can what cannot smell be said to be affected by smells or what cannot see by colours, and so on? It might be...argued that what cannot smell cannot be affected by smells and further than what can smell can be affected by it only in so far as it has in it the power to smell (similarly with the proper objects of all the other senses). Indeed that this is so is made quite evident as follows. Light or darkness, sounds and smells leave bodies quite unaffected; what does affect bodies is not these but the bodies which are their vehicles, e.g. what splits the truck of a tree is not the sound of the thunder but the air which accompanies thunder. Yes, but...is not the true account of this, that all bodies are capable of being affected by smells and sounds, but that some on being acted upon, having no boundaries of their own, disintegrate, as in the instance of air, which does become odorous, showing that some effect is produced on it by what is odorous? But smelling is more than such an affection by what is odorous-what more? Is not the answer that, while the air owing to the momentary duration of the action upon it of what is odorous does itself become perceptible to the sense of smell, smelling is an observing of the result produced."-The Classical Mind 2nd Ed. by W.T. Jones 

Perchance the Poet Nose...

Sniff! Sniff!
Smell, smell
I must tell
                     I will stick mine out here

Take a whiff
May I revel
in a poem to tell
of an organ that alerts one to fear?

Say a rat, or something much worse
it's a magnificent tool
never getting the credit its due
so if I may-

mention it's not really a curse
notched with nostrils dual
it only knows what's true
no tricks or slight of hand play

Surely some will argue
or opt for rhinoplasty
Like self-conscious old Cyrano
or Dante, DiMaggio, J.P. Morgan or Pinocchio

It's not worth all the fret
I think it fits your face
after all it's in the right place
crooked, long, slightly bent or bent just a slight

Everyone knows
of that certain human orifice
that sometimes goes
where it doesn't belong

On a liar it grows
or as a butterflies kiss
freezing snot
or burning hot

Achoo!
Something's Nasty!
Something in the fridge has to go-
Is this old fruit supposed to grow?

Elfin, stubby, button or bulbous
We're all gifted with just one
a nose after all is a knack
you wear that one the best

Wether being brown or pugnacious
stuffy or on the run
it never develops plaque
and it's not stuck on your chest

"Keep it clean", they say
and stuck to the grindstone
And it's rude to turn it up or down
or snip it just for spite

And Boy, that sonorous horn does play
a tune, while not having a bone
to pick, it's merely a noun
but can certainly wake up the night

It's your own special schnoz
sniffer, beak or snout
it just fits your bill
not to rub it in

It deserves an audible applause
Without a doubt I've figured out
It's growing even still
and with people and horses win

True, it cannot turn off
admittedly, sometimes that stinks bad
when invisible invaders incense
emanations of trash, sulfur and poop

Sure, go ahead wrinkle it up and scoff-
but for certain aromas-one must be glad
bread, books, coffee, apples and cinnamon scents
Just don't use it to snoop

Keep it to yourself
The face of your profile
You can thank genetics
for your one of a kind proboscis

Spectacles sit upon this face shelf
that's never out of style
it gets no health from athletics
(even if colossus)-Make way for ze French kiss!

Only in pictures and mirrors
do we ever see
what it really looks like
to be on you or me
with a nose
like none of those
but always grows
and always shows
which way the wind blows
or can forecast
by the shadow it can cast
behind is always the past
Cheers for the Nose
It may not be the one you would have chose
but that is not the worst of woes
to be worried about what one nose.


Image from Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain. The Reign of the King of  Covenant London 1956