Right Under Your Nose: A Poem and Reflection on Beauty
Wiesbaden, Germany Landscape
There is a particular experience you embark on in the simple act of lighting a scented candle. At first, you wait for its warm aroma to fill the room. But then, almost as soon as you notice it, you become blind to it: our inclination towards desensitization takes over. These thoughts flashed through my mind as I attempted to express my encounter with beauty this past summer.
My family took a long anticipated vacation to Germany in June, road tripping to experience as many sites as we could pack into ten days. On our first day, we visited an old monastery. It sat on top of vineyards that wound through the rolling countryside, eventually fading into the blue horizon. I remember feeling stunned by the “grandeur of God” in nature - as Hopkins poetically described. In an attempt to capture at least a fraction of that feeling, I took a picture of the landscape. An older couple smiled, seeing my family so attentive to the view, and asked if we wanted our picture taken. After that, not only was I shocked by the breathtaking landscape, but also by the casual indifference of the locals to the beauty that surrounded us: this was a part of their everyday life.
This simple yet profound realization lingered with me for the remainder of my trip. I noticed that the tourist excitement that comes from visiting new places makes your heart especially attentive and receptive to beauty. You search for it in your surroundings, and appreciate its novelty. But of course, trips do not last forever. Returning home, I was determined to “tour my own city”. I knew that my home, like theirs, was full of beauty, but that I had only been appreciating a sliver of it. Beauty around us has a tendency to become a “new normal”.
As a college student with both a campus home and a home to return to, it makes my tourist goals more achievable. When I return home for breaks, I find myself better able to appreciate the little joys that exist in dense woods, green grass hills, and a night sky speckled with stars. Even last semester, some of my friends visited my home for the first time and noticed beauties that I had grown up so accustomed to.
Though it is a difficult feat to overcome our beauty blindness, I have found that focusing on little details has a great effect. In the Ars Vivendi Fellowship Jessica Sweeney led last semester, we learned to truly experience and observe our environment. I notice the way that lines collide between sidewalks and signposts, how colored portraits of light are framed by high-rise windows, and the way that dewdrops sparkle on flowers that graciously wilt to greet autumn. Even in our urban landscape at Penn, there are so many beauties that so often go unnoticed throughout our day.
I attempted to capture this paradox through a poem. I wrote it on a program from a German orchestra concert we attended, the same day that I saw that stunning view. Though it is no Gerard Manley Hopkins, I think it embodies our nuanced relationship with beauty. In reality, beauty surrounds us constantly – whether we are in Germany, our hometown, or on Locust Walk. Despite its tendency to fade into the background of busy lives, it is something that we need to remember to look for - it is a choice. Afterall, it is right under our nose. Perhaps there is some value in stopping to smell the roses every once in a while.
Right Under Your Nose
Beauty is a scented candle
Lit by a spark of joy
Child jumping in newfound puddle
Brightened face at sight of toy.
Yet puddles line every street
And toys become bits of plastic.
Even candles, despite their fragrant heat
And excitement of untouched wick
Fill empty walls with lavender fields
One can innocently dream to sustain:
Eventually, sweet newness of aroma yields
Blind acceptance, or a struggle in vain.
For though the flame may still burn bold
And a guest, smile at its warm embrace,
Frank familiarity becomes a blindfold
To the beauty that fills a space.
