I Remember Eucalyptus
I remember the scent of eucalyptus wafting on the wind.
I remember the scent of summer rain on the hot, dry dirt road.
I remember dust devils swirling down that same dirt road before the rain came.
I remember the hot, arid Santa Ana winds in the California sun, pushing wildfires in their path.
I remember carrots and green beans and radishes and cucumbers (and dill) and ripe red tomatoes in the garden.
I remember riding my bike to the Elliots’ house and barely making it up their steep paved driveway off the dirt road below.
But mostly, I remember the scent of eucalyptus.
This poem was inspired by the April 5 prompt from The Daily Poet by Kelli Russell Agodon & Martha Silano.
4/28/15 Update: Decided to share this today at dVerse Poets Pub where Mary asks us to write about where we are from. I’d already written a poem today for the NaPoWriMo prompt, and when I read Mary’s post I thought of this poem.
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I love the scent of Eucalyptus! I’m so glad to read a poem about it!
Very appealing to the senses. I like how you began and ended with the eucalyptus. Sweet! 🙂
I wish Eucalyptus grew here in New England. I loved living for 4 years in Arizona and Eucalyptus was part of it. It all makes scents now.
🙂
I just scented that aroma outside of Muir woods recently – it is indeed a fine smell. It always interests me how memories become ingrained with our senses.
I think that is one of the drawbacks of experiences on the Internet – no smells.
no wind in our faces, no heat of expectation
There are so many moments when a whiff of the past sends you back in time to revisit places, people, events. These experiences are usually some of life’s unexpected little pleasures. “Thanks for the memory….”
yes…scent does take us to a time travel specially down memory lane…beautiful..
I love the smell of eucalyptus. This poem tells much about where you’re from. I enjoyed reading it and am glad you posted it here.
I too ask myself how eucalyptus smells… like the candy that’s made of it?
You also reminded me of the new word I recently learned, Petrichor. Got to love that smell of rain on dry dirt 🙂
It is funny right how the food and garden is what jumps out to us when we think of our home? “I remember carrots and green beans and radishes and cucumbers (and dill) and ripe red tomatoes in the garden.” Yes! 😀
I don’t think I’ve ever known the smell of eucalyptus (or does shampoo count?). Another poem that appeals to all the senses – and has movement too, with that bike ride. Lovely and nostalgic!
Those things that we remember do truly inform us of who we are…for we remember those things that shape us.
Yes.. the smell of Eucalyptus is a memory for me too.. a most beautiful tree felled by a Hurricane Nurturing the sweet smell of blossoms.. from a stump.. hoping for it to come back.. and finally saying bye to that beloved tree..:)
What lovely memories… Reminds me of morning glories and Roses of Sharon… As a child my father beamed over the row of morning glories he planted outside our bedrooms… No air conditioning. Early summer nights with the windows open a breeze would carry their scent in to me, listening to that far off 9:15 train blow it’s whistle… Your poem just so took me there… The roses of sharon were on the property my wife and I lived at on our first year….. I had forgotten them… Thank you for sharing…
Scent is very powerful isn’t it? It can change your mood, plunge you into memories long forgotten. Nice!
Wonderful share. And the scents all tell us some of where you are from. I like this take on the prompt very much.
I really do think that the scent of eucalyptus would stay with a person, and I like how you both began with and ended with the mention of its scent. And, oh what a wonderful garden the one that you remember must have been! Love ripe red tomatoes….
The scent of rain on a hot, dry, dirt road is one of my favorite childhood memories….there is just something so soothing about that smell for me.
I really like the way your poem appeals to the senses, ‘the scent of eucalyptus’ or of the rain, the summer food, the heat. A wonderful write, Linda!
nice.. remembering scents goes deep… when i went to california i got to know the Santa Ana winds as well… a different experience from our cold winds over here
Very beautiful. I dont know what eucalyptus smells like but I love the name!!!!
My son says it smells like the stuff you spread on your chest when you’re sick, and he’s kind of right, but it means so much more to me. 🙂
I find it so interesting that what we remember the scents.. that is so very true.
Thank you for sharing this poem and what you remembered! 🙂