Sorry it's a late one today. As the sun sets on another day of salty underarms, burned lawns and panting dogs, here is an exercise (#3 to be precise) from one of my poetry workshops.
In touch with nature
Stories and poems
which include strong visual imagery are more likely to be retained by the
reader. Use visualisation to put
yourself in a scene and make it vivid for yourself. If you can see what you’re describing you’re
more likely to be able to make it clear for the readers.
Exercise 3:
Write down an emotion:
e.g. worry
Think of an animal to
represent that emotion:
e.g. sparrow
Think of a scene for
that animal to exist in:
e.g. garden path
Think of an action
for that animal to carry out:
e.g. watching
Create your example of metaphorical
nature-based imagery:
e.g. She paces at the window
a sparrow on the garden path
restless
eyes searching the trees
for the ill-fitting shadow
And here are some examples of superlative nature-based poetry which should inspire you to look at the details around you and capture them for your own nefarious poetic means. Enjoy!
The moment
Echo saw Narcissus
She was in
love. She followed him
Like a
starving wolf
Following a
stag too strong to be tackled.
And like a
cat in winter at a fire
She could
not edge close enough
To what
singed her, and would burn her.
Ted Hughes,
from Tales from Ovid (1997)
You know me
as a turbulent ocean
clouded with
thunder and drama.
Carolyn
Kizer, from In the First Stanza
I’ll chatter metaphysics with a chimpanzee,
now
my thoughts
are the antlers of the Irish elk,
the wings of
flightless birds, peptides
spelling out
the phrase
very like
a whale
Brook Emery, from Very like a Whale
No lik the past which lies
Strewn around. Nor sudden death.
No like a lover we’ll ken
An connect wi forever.
The hem of its goin drags across the sky.
Kathleen Jamie, from Skeins o Geese
