Wake, Butterfly: Game with Amelia Bande

In the fifth episode, Amelia Bande invites listeners to play a game.

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Matsuo Bashō wrote:

Wake, butterfly—
it’s late, we’ve miles
to go together.

Poetry magazine presents Wake, Butterfly, a series of intimate portraits that invite listeners to keep creating. The series is produced by Rachel James with sound design by Axel Kacoutié.

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Here’s an edited version of Bande’s prompt:

Think about a word. Any word. And then write a poetic definition of the word that does not include the word in it. And then you're going to use this poem as lyrics of a song. Once you have your song, you can sing it to someone else or to a group of people. And it's a riddle because then they have to try and guess what the word was.

So, this is one: I wrote the definition. It’s in Spanish but I did a translation so I’m going to read the translation now: You smell it. You perceive it. It activates fugitive instincts of primary protection to fight, flight, freeze, or transform my fear in ways to charm you. What's the word?

(Want to know what word is the answer to Bande’s riddle? It’s also the final word in the title of this poem.)