Creative Writing Journal #10

David Colon

Creative Writing

Professor Miller

3/21/18

One of the aspects that I loved about this chapter was the poems that were used throughout. “Michiko Dead” offered great examples of similes and metaphors as the author equates grief with carrying a heavy box. The imagery of a man doing all he can to carry this heavy box, using all of his muscles, all of his energy to just move strikes such a powerful image: “Afterward/he carries it on his shoulder, until the blood/drains out of the arm that is stretched up/to steady the box and the arm goes numb” (99). The author to this poem only uses the world “like” in the beginning of the poem; the whole poem is technically a long simile. When reading this poem, I could not only picture a man doing all he can to carry a box, but picture a man doing all he can to grieve. I had this cathartic reaction where I could feel for this author, feeling his pain and his grief.

Another interesting aspect to this chapter was the idea of “The Toxic Language Dump – a place we’ve invented for all those expressions that are deadly for the art” (95). When writing poetry, you don’t want to use clichés because they take away from your writing. I always cringe when reading cliché statements because they just feel and read as being tacky. The author of the text reinforces the idea that creative, figurative language will deepen the meaning of your work: “Figurative language is a way to deepen and intensify the themes and concerns of your work” (96). Cliché statements and phrasing will ultimately dampen and take meaning away from your poetry. A good simile and metaphor take time to craft as they have to not only connect with your reader, but add intended meaning to your work.

 

Exercise 1

 

Tired as my GPA.

 

Hot as the dog days of summer.

 

Waves unfurled like flowers in spring.

 

After the shelling, the town looked as if Picasso had taken his brush to it.

 

Disgusting as the mucus that hangs from a child’s nose.

 

The child trembled like the atoms that circle a molecule.

 

The airplane rose like Icarus before he had reached the sun.

 

Black as a gap between a tooth.

 

He entered the room like an offbeat drum.

 

Their lovemaking was like two elephants tiptoeing around a bedroom.