read write prompt #27: gulls like white handkerchiefs
by Jill Crammond Wickham
“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!
Come back starting next Monday after midnight Central Standard Time to share your poetic similes or metaphors or anything at all.
|
get the read write poem badge! 
Wear it loud, wear it proud! Display the Read Write Poem badge on your site. Just click here or on the image above to get the code! read write poem news- the (very) latest on our (virtual) tour of molly gaudry’s ‘anatomy for the artist’
March 11, 2010 | 2:25 pmRen Powell has just posted her take on Molly Gaudry’s electronic chapbook, “Anatomy for the Artist.” Find the post at More Babel.
And, in case you missed it, the first stop was Donna Vorreyer’s, at her blog. Next up was Catherine Fitchett at Poetry Chook and then Lawrence Gladeview at Righteous Rightings.
You can find information about this chapbook and tour here, including a link to where to find it and read it for yourself, online.
- a new poem every day in april (requires reading, not writing)
March 10, 2010 | 6:33 pm“Beginning April 1, Poets.org sends one new poem to your inbox each day to celebrate National Poetry Month. The poems have been selected from new books published in the spring.” Sign up here.
- and it keeps on coming: our (virtual) tour of molly gaudry’s ‘anatomy for the artist’
March 9, 2010 | 1:00 pmLawrence Gladeview has posted his thoughts about Molly Gaudry’s electronic chapbook, “Anatomy for the Artist.” Find the post at Righteous Rightings.
In case you missed it, the first stop was Donna Vorreyer’s, at her blog. Next was Catherine Fitchett at Poetry Chook.
You can find information about the chapbook and tour here, including a link to where to find it and read it online.
- obama’s first hundred days in poetry
March 6, 2010 | 8:36 amArielle Greenberg and Rachel Zucker challenged 100 poets to note the political climate of each of President Obama’s first days in office. The blogged poems have been anthologized in a work called Starting Today: 100 Poems for Obama’s First 100 Days, which will be released in April (ahem, National Poetry Month, although you can pre-order a copy at their blog site).
Read about it here. A hat tip to Rethabile Masilo who posted a link to Rachel Zucker’s poem at his blog, Poéfrika.
 Archive for read write poem news »
|
|
Loading ...
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!
[...] in response to these play, sharp, simile http://readwritepoem.org/2008/05/14/read-write-prompt-27-gulls-like-white-handkerchiefs/ challenges.)Technorati Tags: Classical Music Humor, Bassoon Poem, Conductor Limerick, Symphony [...]
Here is mine. Wow did I travel in some strange places for this one! That includes a pic I created!
Gated Masks
Gemma