Celebrate Red Nose Day by enjoying a nose poem!
YOUR NOSE
The blowing of your nose was a trumpet
thrilling the house, rocking from cellar to attic,
shaking the stairs and banisters. It was a strict
aquiline beak that you called ‘Roman’ – at least
it would have been if you hadn’t broken it
and crooked it sideways in the mending. You ate
Club biscuits in majestic bites, then hooked
the wrapper over your royal snout and snorted
until we giggled. Quick to condemn, you sniffed
with curling lip at fads and fatuous fools.
Even in later years your grand-dad trunk
inhaled the world as fiercely, quivering over
cut glass filled with amber. Presence flared
from your nostrils; little children warmed themselves
by dragon flames that lasted and lasted. Yes.
by Helena Nelson
from her latest poetry collection Plot & Counter-Plot, Shoestring Press, 2010.
You could also have a read of Edward Lear's The Dong with a Luminous Nose
Want some tips on reading poems? Then try this helpful guide form the Scottish Poetry Library
