Fragrant Fragments

I did a double take.

They [various techniques of avant garde poets] invite the mind to a widened sense of the possible, opening it to the fragrant [...]

I read this as an opening to the fragment. Imagine my surprise when I read on: "opening it to the fragrant, stored oils of the unconscious." Here are the two parts restored from "The Question of Originality" by Jane Hirshfield (collected in Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry)

They invite the mind to a widened sense of the possible, opening it to the fragrant, stored oils of the unconscious.

I remain amazed at the power of a comma to halt the mind that is galloping off in one direction and bring it back to a different track, slowing down to savour the fragrance.

And so for day 679
22.10.2008