“Today I challenge you to write a self-portrait poem in which make a specific action a metaphor for your life – one that typically isn’t done all that often, or only in specific circumstances. For example, bowling, or shopping for socks, or shoveling snow, or teaching a child to tie its shoes.”
My self-portrait poem is ‘Searching for a shell”
I’m searching for a shell
That’s so smooth -it feels like silk
Amidst the many that lie-
strewn on my path – scattered
Left behind by hurtling waves
toughened by hardened rocks
glistening in the sand
edges smoothed with time
I’m searching for a shell
With colors – of the sunset
On leveled sheets and billowing piles
I tread tirelessly- searching
Delicate arches -hues of glowing embers
A blush – rising
A warm tan to a deep red
over the horizon – across the blue
I’m searching for a shell
That resonates – the sound of the ocean
I trudge along -searching
Across miles and miles of brown
A deep baritone – music of the ages past
A lull – swirling, whooshing
Flowing and ebbing notes
Of waves- of foreign shores
I’m searching for a shell
That holds the secret – a mystery
Of the universe
In the ‘sands of time’, I traverse
In search of a shell
That’ll hum me to rest
I’m searching, searching
For me
Today, we bring you what might seem like a rather silly resource, but one thing that poetry has taught me is that silly tricks are sometimes the best, at least for getting one’s creativity going. It’s an online metaphor generator! Plug in some parameters, and get a phrase that may strike you as interesting, arresting, or . . . just ridiculous. At any rate, I hope this generator is something you can return to when you find yourself staring at the page and thinking “ummmmmmmmm.” Forrest Gump famously said that “life is like a box of chocolates.” Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt deals with metaphors! There are any number of poems out there that compare or equate the speaker’s life with a specific object. (For example, this poem of Emily Dickinson’s).
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