is an ongoing arts & letter writing initiative

By Word of Nose project participants and others were invited to write a letter addressed: To My Beloved Nose. The letter was mailed somewhere over the course of the following months, arriving serendipitously to the letter writer’s residence as a gentle reminder from the past.

A small selection of these letters are shared anonymously to encourage more open expression.

Please Enjoy.

to my beloved nose,

  • I have taken you for granted.

    You had always been there, fixed and loyal. It t wasn’t until we took a softball to the face this summer that I realized how important you are to me. Without you I wouldn’t smell the seasons, food would not be as enjoyable and I would surely snore much louder. I will never, for the rest of my days, take you for granted again.

    -Anonymous

  • we've seen a lot together, you and I.

    From getting hit with a softball when we were four, to wearing glass consistently since the age of twelve. Permanent indents, bumps and scars have left their marks but one thing has always remained the same: we share characteristics with our ancestors.

    You are my father’s nose, and his father’s before him. Generations of bumpy, large noses bringing us together.

    I’m proud of you.

    - me

  • My sundial, my family tree, my thread to Bubbie and Sadie and all the magnificent semetic shapes and sculptures ignorably present between wise eyes.

    Aunt Ruth’s nose is magnificent and proud, her sister Lilian’s more demure, but shaped by glasses that etched their contact points into her bridge, oddly naked when revealed without their spectres.

    Nose inheritance is diluted from gen to gen as the blood thins. I hope my daughter can embrace the trace of a bump and my son can wish for a phantom hook - to be proud and know that emblem of history, family and love and connection.

    - Me

  • I have a complicated relationship with you.

    You feel too big and wide and when I smile I notice you even more. You remind me of my dad, something I love, but also something I struggle with because of how you stand out.

    My mom played a part in your size too, making you an undeniable family signature. People always say I look like my dad because of you which makes me feel proud and self-conscious. Sometimes I dream of changing you but that would be changing my heritage.