writercises | EXERCISE: Life in a metaphor or two... (Reply)

Original posting: Tue, 19 Sep 2000 20:31:00 -0400

Recently, I saw a plaque that consisted of four relatively short chunks of writing (I hesitate to call them poetic, although others might).

The first consisted of several statements about "Life as a rainbow." The second talked about "life as an unsung song." Then it ended with two simple lines:

"the beauty of a rainbow may be contemplated in solitude.
The mystery of a song begs to be shared."

I think of this as basically two extended similes (Life is like a cracker, crispy on the outside, dry on the inside, and crunchy when broken...) and then a pair of metaphorical implications (a cracker tastes better with salt [and the silent echoing thought about whether a life also needs a little salt])

Hokay?

So, your job:

1. Pick two little bits of reality (rainbow, song, tree, pebble, river, hurricane, etc.)
2. Pick a general thing (life, love, peace of mind, justice, etc.)
3. Stretch those similes! Make lists of characteristics of the reality chunks. You might make a list of the characteristics of the abstraction, too. Mix and match, compare and contrast, and pick out the ones that really feel powerful.
4. Arrange into two extended similes and a pair of observations.
5. Polish, tighten, and make the words twinkle.

Write!