by the Read Write Poem Staff
Valentine’s Day is long past, says Read Write Poem member Jill Crammond Wickham, but we poets must keep up our reputation as the world’s foremost experts on writing about love!
Today, think of your current love, your current obsession or the one who got away. Now come up with five or more unusual metaphors for the object of your affection/obsession: wool scarf, cough drop, puddle, half-empty bottle of red wine… Choose your favorite of the bunch and write a poem celebrating (or trashing) your love. 
Reminders for everyone
Read the Read Write Poem NaPoWriMo Challenge Kickoff post for details on how the challenge works — and how you can engage with Read Write Poem this month, no matter what your personal writing challenge is for the month of April.
Please read this page to find out how Read Write Poem’s prompt posts work. Remember that work linked from any post this month is shared in precisely that spirit: sharing, as opposed to critiquing. If you haven’t done so already, please read all the pages under About in the navigation bar.
One of the five metaphors made it to the final cut!
Eating Fruit
Uses similes rather than metaphor.
Un/Healthy
I love you like a former skinhead
loves his hair
or a blister that blooms
evidence of the hard work
of lusting. You give me enough
to burst my bubble,
the sting of raw skin.
Like the combination
of beer and skittles,
like honey and pepper,
like deep-fried chocolate bars
you make me sick.
Glad to know you,
I wish we never met
so I could know I’m alive
another way besides
belly-ache, liver-ache, kidney-ache.
lanijo replied:
April 8th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Melissa, beer and skittles – yes, it’s just like that. And here in Portland, love tastes like deep fried Twinkies at Fire on the Mountain.
Dan Rako replied:
April 8th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Similes are like metaphors…
Nice work!
Dan Rako
http://www.dansbait.com
redshoeartist replied:
April 8th, 2010 at 6:00 pm
I know him… nice one
Danika Dinsmore replied:
April 8th, 2010 at 10:54 pm
Way to go Melissa!
Kristen McHenry replied:
April 8th, 2010 at 10:56 pm
Love it!!!
Like the combination
of beer and skittles,
like honey and pepper
here we go. this one’s for the prompt:
http://caroleesherwood.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/napowrimo-8-2/
this one’s for my husband
http://lanijo.com/poetry/how-can-i-count-ways
I’m having a hard time with the prompts. Perhaps I’m just not experienced enough to respond well to them, but I’m still writing a poem everyday.
http://nothinghypothetical.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/let-everyone/
Shannon Rayne replied:
April 8th, 2010 at 9:50 pm
that’s all that matters!
is to write
Adoration
Above a silent desert morning
We were a howling wind storm
Freezing in 100 degree heat
Collapsing on boulders and sand
Underneath sage and dusty trails
Test…
I’m off-prompt again with this cut-and-paste:
http://triatriatria.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/infant-joy/
Danika Dinsmore replied:
April 8th, 2010 at 10:54 pm
Oh, glad to know I’m not the only one!
The whole month, huh? Thank Heavens next week is Spring Recess for us. Quarter grades due tomorrow – all I’ve been doing in April is grades and poems. Not complaining – actually love it. But my house is a disaster area.
Here is Prompt # 8 -
http://synecdochicstuff.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-8.html
ok
Here I go again. For some reason, my attempt at posting keep failing. Anyhow, my post for today is striking me as too juvenile (?) or trite, but would still love your comments. Thanks!!
http://rrosenchang.blogspot.com
A late lunch led me to a non-prompt piece: http://jasonriedy.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/monochrome/
Jason Riedy replied:
April 8th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
(Um, is it just me, or did my WP post magically also get listed a few items before this? Sorry… Didn’t realize trackbacks (or whatever) were enabled.)
Describing my current love I found six metaphors for him and four made it into the poem: – tomcat, flower, solid rock, beacon, blanket, calm sea
Tom
The tomcat pawls at night
He walks the perimeter of my home
His step is fast and light
For all the places he must roam
Upon the rock among my sea
There stands a lighthouse tall and calm
A beacon shines where all can see
Soothing my heart like balm
The cat for all his fear of wet
Does prowl the lighthouse through the night
Is watching out for any threat
The beacon shining in his eyes
Sorry I’m so grim today. Believe it or not I was inspired by a scarf. My website is “under construction” today so I’m posting here:
Betrayal
If I had known
you would drag me naked
out in front of our friends, our children,
exposing my scars, my stains, my shame,
then I would have grabbed a shawl on my way out.
A cloak to protect me from your
words, ordinary and violent,
bland and eviscerating,
neutron bomb words
that only harm the one you love.
A wrap to hide beneath
and bind myself tightly against
the bright light, the frost,
the raw elements of
what you said.
If I had known
you would slice me open
and leave me there to drag my own entrails
I would have brought swathes
to soak my blood.
If I had known
that after this day
I would have to recreate myself
I would have brought a shroud
to bury myself in.
gregoconnell replied:
April 8th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
“shawl/cloak/wrap/swathes/shroud”: like what you did there. Love the final stanza, and the way shroud carries a hint of eventual resurrection…=)
Marie replied:
April 8th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
Thanks, Greg. Thanks for commenting!
rallentanda replied:
April 8th, 2010 at 6:48 pm
Spirited real and well crafted.Fabulous!
Jason Riedy replied:
April 9th, 2010 at 11:16 am
The echo of evisceration, too. All scarf-like. Great!
The metaphor I ended up writing on was that of the crocus. Enjoy!
http://healingforthehealthy.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-8-unusual-love-connections.html
Unusual Love: Take 8
Two love prompts in a row?
C’mon ReadWritePoem staff, you can be more original than that. Here’s my post for Unusual Love.
http://www.BabblingOnInBabylon.com/blog
My first thought today on seeing this prompt was “love again, oh no”, quickly followed by “love again, cool!”
Love (Metaphorically Speaking):
http://caraholman.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/2010-napowrimo-8/
this is what i came up with http://wp.me/pGBCb-1h
knight trumpet Gabriel incision scar
http://revolutionarysweetheart.blogspot.com
http://www.robertlunday.net/2010/04/poem-8-messiah.html
Here is mine.
http://mygorgeoussomewhere.org/2010/04/08/transliteration-of-catallus-part-v/
another great challenging prompt to napowrimo!! repairable repartee
My poem, Why Didn’t We Make It Darling? can be read at musetomyeyes.blogspot.com
OK, here’s mine: http://thekitchenbitchponders.blogspot.com/2010/04/national-poetry-writing-month-day-eight.html
Dream
This prompt got me off on a slightly different track – an unusual metaphor for love, but a fictional story: http://www.cathymcguire.com/poetry.htm
This poem leans towards the prompt from yesterday, but I wrote it with today’s prompt in mind: http://goo.gl/fb/E0yt4
This is just getting more fun by the day. (I’m sure I won’t be saying this towards the end of the month.)
http://just-somestuff.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-8-perhaps-he-is.html
Katie (Bookgirl) replied:
April 8th, 2010 at 5:48 pm
I really enjoyed this one.
I guess I didn’t have much romance in me today, but I still wrote about love.
http://freckledwriter.blogspot.com/2010/04/melt.html
I’m really to young to be in “love” but I wrote a poem anyway…didn’t really use “unusual” metaphors but ones I thought would fit into this poem. Enjoy!
when I look at you
lights twinkle in your
eyes
we talk
and your voice speaks
magic
we are one together
yet two pieces of artwork
that match
i speak of the moonlight
casting it’s ivory glow
reflecting off of you
you speak of sunlight
“you light up my life”
and we leave
departing
until next time
http://marcieaf.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-day-8.html
Swirl in the South
Godawful rap music,
by a local ‘artist’ no less.
Mornings and afternoons
sequestered in my car
savoring each other before
basketball, dance, piano, life.
Your love of my perfume clashes with
my distaste for your aftershave.
Nothing like the smell of just
You.
The shine of your shoes,
a blinding white, goes with
our unintentional matching outfits
thanks to that dress code instilled
and enforced, but
respect for what we have
is not.
Not by faculty
Not by peers
Not by parents.
We were based on a rebellion.
I look back
and wonder;
Was it was ever honest?
Were we star-crossed lovers?
Or was all a subconscious
Sham.
to show everyone why not?
“Love is mounted on short legs.”
http://tinacelio.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/loving-cuplug/
today’s contribution is “impatience”.
Lover, Best Friend, Brother
http://richelledodaro.blogspot.com
Today’s poem:
http://yearofthebooks.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/poem-a-day-day-8/
I generally shy away from writing about romantic love, but gave it a try. I find it hard to approach the subject without feeling a bit cheesy or cliché.
I don’t think I was avoided such pitfalls this time either, but I think this is probably the least cloying of my experiments with the metaphors on my shortlist.
http://www.shicho.net/words/?p=1042
Poem #8. “Scurvy.” Posted at: http://troysworktable.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-8.html
Got a bit off prompt, but then again who doesn’t?
http://novaheart.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/poem-4810-your-book-of-days/
http://crankymango.blogspot.com/2010/04/sleeping.html
off the page
when the pen I reach for doesn’t
write, I force cyclones in the corners
when no words form, love is
a series of unseen storms
Love doesn’t inspire me today. So here is my off-prompt submission for today.
http://eyemachine.xanga.com/725015403/day-8/
I wasn’t so sure about this one at first, but then I ended up having a lot of fun with it. No one said the subject had to be person, or an animate object for that matter. For any bakers in the audience, you might get a kick out of this one.
Artisanal Obsession
Boyfriend
Maybe it’s the aroma of you
first thing in the morning
that helps wake me up.
Or the smooth bold taste
of that first cup.
Something about you
awakens the senses,
makes me want to
get up for the day.
Love poetry ain’t my thang, so I went back to the tanka, one of my favorite forms, and jotted a poem on my ancentral home (a love affair of sorts there, right?):
http://meditativemeanderings.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-8-more-tanka.html
I am on-prompt-ish. I wrote about love, but used a different process. It still counts as a poem, dang it.
How to Care for the In Love
April 8 ~ “Jay” ~ http://treasures.edublogs.org/2010/04/08/readwritepoem-april-8/
Ah…I liked this one!
Hooked: http://web.me.com/susansonnen/Susan_Sonnens_musings/Blog/Entries/2010/4/8_NaPoWriMo%2C_Day_8.html
http://kolokoli.blogspot.com/2010/04/cookie-haiku.html
Not to the prompt today, though my husband does love non-failed meringue cookies:
once again
meringue cookie clouds collapse
failure *sigh*
I think I tried to focus too much on the “unusual” aspect and lost sight of the ultimate goal. Day eight wasn’t easy for me, but here is my offering:
http://paperdreams-jgc.blogspot.com/2010/04/day-8-our-love-was-like-hourglass.html
Wicked late tonight but, at least, I got it done.
Thanks, again, for a great prompt!
Hmm, another love poem day, hmm?
Oh well, I still did what I could~! http://wintermintfruit.blogspot.com/2010/04/caterpillar-and-worm.html
Day 8. Its going by quickly!
Eye of the Storm
Before this
My soul was a landfill
Festering under a blaze
Of uncertainty and
Self-loathing
I wore a coat
A suit of armor
Black as the deep sea
And then he
With his eyes of
Melting ice and
Tornado winds
Blasted away my
Impurities
Shame and Sorrow
Exposing a diamond sheen
Unknown to me
He released a
Landslide
Initiating our dance of
Flame
In the center of our
Storm.
Jenna replied:
April 8th, 2010 at 10:19 pm
Wow. Stunning imagery.
“Companions” may be the silliest poem I’ve ever written. My cat made me do it.
http://theresebroderick.wordpress.com
Great prompt!
http://rosettathurman.posterous.com/napowrimo-poem-8-my-first-love
http://katharinewhitcomb.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-8-house-that-he-is.html
Love poems two days in a row! I don’t know if I can take much more!
I thought I was bored of love poems (already), but I found a way to make it work. . . (I think.)
http://cosmicmermaid.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/broken-bowl-pieces/
The prompts have the wonderful way of triggering off “slightly” different responses.
You’ll find my poem here: http://word-painting.blogspot.com/2010/04/hierophany.html
http://thebooklife.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/4-8/
http://sky-lined.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-day-8.html
The first poem. Short and simple!
NaPoWriMo #08 Curved space
I loved this one.
Metal Man
woosh…stirring the coffee….
http://motherveg.wordpress.com/
One last one for the road: http://poetry.disorderedcosmos.com/2010/04/napowrimo-8b-the-empty-set/
http://eveningpoems.blogspot.com/
Bread
You are felicitous, amiable
as water and just as good with.
I could eat you in a house.
I could eat you with a mouse.
I could eat you in the tip top of trees.
In the morning, you are hot
bread pudding. At night,
a strict baguette.
There are night with garlic
and nights with honey.
Honeycombed Lancelot,
I’ve true tried you.
And sometimes, you become
the body of another,
and in my mouth
I become part of you.
I snubbed today’s prompt; yes, I am a dangerous, crazy rebel:
http://thegoodtypist.blogspot.com/2010/04/day-eight-snubbing-prompt.html
Golden Wind Of Ratnakara
Angeliad of Surazeus
2010 04 08
http://open.salon.com/blog/surazeus/2010/04/08/golden_wind_of_ratnakara
Poseidon walks strand of Erythra Sea
collecting bird eggs buried in gold sand
and finds a man washed up on shore
so he carries him back to dragon cave.
Salacia prepares sweet reviving wine
from mushrooms and plump grapes
that wakes ship-wrecked sailor to life
who claps hands and chants before fire.
My name is Varuna son of Indra Mitra
and I sailed sea-dragon boat Makara
down Thamirabarani from Mount Agastya
where Agathiya taught me how to sing.
Poseidon gives him wheat bread to eat
you are now in great land of Azania
so come with me to meet our Aphara
then they drum and play bone flutes.
Complete poem here:
http://open.salon.com/blog/surazeus/2010/04/08/golden_wind_of_ratnakara
How about crows in a graveyard? LOL
The image was stuck in my mind today. Don’t know how/if it has to do with love . . . but then Sharon Dubiago says every poem is a love poem.
GROUNDED
When love Learns to Fly
The chirpings outside, in the back
have ceased with the footsteps
within, and only thundering silence
remains where life once was, banging
on my window, like a mother on the doorstep
of a convent with a child she
will never known, and as I hold the
egg in my hands, fragile and
secret, I think of
what colors the wings will be
when she flies away.
(c) Nicole W
Almost missed my deadline but posted it before midnight! The inspiration did not come until 15 minutes before midnight!
Unusual Love Poem
With only 15 minutes to spare
Until midnight
I have been unable to describe any
Of my love relationships in unusual terms.
Maybe as the cell phone with all the bells and whistles
That takes a splash and suddenly malfunctions.
Or any overpriced electronic diversion
That can’t handle the accidental spills of life.
Perhaps a pair of socks
That goes threadbare too quickly.
Leaving my heels and toes exposed.
You bargain bin buy, you.
Not worth the dime I spent
inside your thin cotton.
That never comes clean after the wash.
The gorgeous red lily I bought
that died after two days.
All decoration, and no growth.
Watering will kill any living thing
That does not know how to receive
nourishment.
I am accident prone.
Clumsy and only graceful in
a pair of pumps.
The men I have loved could be
cheap stilettos.
Sharp, sexy and fun.
Until stepping into the cracks
of the sidewalk.
The sole quickly wears down
and leaves me sore.
Life teaches you a Payless pick
will never be a Manolo Blahnik.
I love shoes, but next time I will shop
for better support.
Choose better men as accessories
to match.
No BOGO’s allowed when it comes to
my heart.
Reflections Internal: NaPoWrimo #8: Unusual Love Poem
I finally found a resonant metaphor, but it doesn’t really celebrate or trash: Ocotillo.
Ceiling Fan
she’s a ceiling fan
quietly swirling stale air
slim blades thick with dust
cast-off hair and skin cells sing
things just light enough to lose
Untitled “He is my summer sábana…” This was sweet. Thank you Jill.
Late, but here:
Jesus & Kebabs/Ball Pits
Day 9 Anticipation Haiku
Even some nuns in
Nova Scotia are wondering
where’s the Goddamn prompt?
###
Love it JD