read write prompt #27: gulls like white handkerchiefs
Published by Jill May 14th, 2008 in Jill, Read Write Prompt.
Gulls like white handkerchiefs. How I wish I’d written that line. It is a gorgeous simile. Alas. It is not mine. It is a line from Isabel Allende’s new memoir, The Sum of Our Days.
This week, your prompt is fairly simple. Make comparisons. Notice the world around you. Turn your observations into similes (and metaphors).
As Webster explains simile: Likeness, comparison, a figure of speech in which two dissimilar things are compared by the use of like or as (as in cheeks like roses).
Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a word for one idea or thing is used in place of another to suggest a likeness between them (as in the ship plows the sea).
Write long lists of comparisons. Long, trailing lists. Try to avoid clichés at all costs. (99 Cents; $1.39; $3.56; spare no expense!)
After you’ve spent a few days collecting, choose your favorite(s) and use them in a poem. Use a simile to begin a poem. Use a simile to inspire an entire poem. Use a simile as a poem title. The words are your oyster.
There. Easy as pie. Easy as wind in your hair. Easy like Sunday morning!
~Jill.
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Come back starting next Monday after midnight (CST) to share your poetic similes or metaphors or anything at all.
6 Responses to “read write prompt #27: gulls like white handkerchiefs”
- 1 Pingback on May 18th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
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I like this prompt! Similes and metaphors are favorites of mine.
I have two kids and they were never into poetry but my 2 1/2-year-old granddaughter is following in her grandma’s footsteps. She thinks in terms of similes, I swear. A couple weeks ago, she was out in the woods hiking with her dad and they came across some deer droppings and she told me later, “The deer poop looked like jelly beans.”
wow…
this is nice..
like it…
thanks..
Jill, wonderful prompt. I’ve already seen a change in my thoughts since I read this, my mind on the prowl for new ways to view theworld. Linda’s right, children can teach us so much about looking at our surroundings with fresh eyes.
my 4 year old son and i trade similes all the time so i will start writing some of them down and post them…they are mostly silly but fun!
Here is mine. Wow did I travel in some strange places for this one! That includes a pic I created!
Gated Masks
Gemma