Rare-Earth Blessing Poem by Patti Masterman

Spilled a dropp of aromatic cedar oil
Upon the worn out leather of my shoe
On that graceful day, I walked upon
The most fragrant, incensed sole
Up from virgin forests climbing
Across a sea of lacquered chests
To polished floors, of oud wood shining
With rare oil of the miners mining
Pressed from trees well-perfumed flesh
No tobacco shop smells better
Than the barken closet I'd become
A comely air that's rare earth-blessed.

No kings hall could smell as fragrant
With a thousand armaments of scent
This alone could explain the secret
Solomon as more than just vagrant
I can sense the smile of a geisha girl
As she sits alone at the mirror
Takes silken scarf, from a vanity drawer
As a wisp of cedar-note unfurls
You could never duplicate that scent
If you lived for a thousand years
No synthetic tone ever smells like that
Nature's blessings should be freely spent.