ATTENTION: All COVID 19-related restrictions have been lifted. The pandemic is over!

 

 

Ooops, April Fools’ Day here in the old U S of A.

Welcome back!

And welcome to the best month of the year. We celebrate fools—we all know a few of those—this month. Mother Earth has her day this month. My niece—didn’t I just hold her as a newborn?—will turn twenty-four this month. And a foolish, tree hugging, white-haired, old biker has his birthday this month. Happy April, y’all.

The member who sent in last month’s question also asked something of poets. Due to the total number of individuals involved, I decided to feature them in separate months. And even though not all poets I contacted replied, the responses we do have are outstanding.

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Do you have a favorite metaphor? An image or analogy you come back to again and again? If so, what is it about that metaphor that draws you back?

 

 

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@AC Benus

When I first got this question, I thought, "No. I don't go back to well-worn ideas over and over...." And then, lol, I thought of a couple of things that I have gone back to a few times. 

One seems to be the "Alice in Wonderland" theme. It has appeared several times as allusions in my poetry, and then, last year, it somehow wound up being the central theme in my havin-a-baby novella Finding Joy. 

Another area I come back to is more nebulous. This especially shows up in my poetry as opposed to my fiction, but I use concepts and theories from Physics as metaphors. String Theory, the Butterfly Effect, Quantum Mechanics, and many more wind up as ways to express the sort of mystical connections some of us feel for others. One area I have plans to write a prose piece deals with discoveries made by a doctor of Anesthesiology concerning the human body and reactions people have far, far, far below the conscious level. 

So, thank you for your question. It really made me think

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@Mikiesboy

Hmmm , interesting question.

I write a lot about depression, i have lived with it for many years. To me it is a soul and spirit sucking vampire. I often use words such as fog, darkness, viscous, heaviness and chains, to describe it.

I included some samples in my answer:

In the early morning I can hear its song
though its wee small voice is fleeting
my soul yearning for something more
and sadness I can feel comes creeping

And the tears sit waiting but are not wept
for what earthly good will it do?
I can cry for an age but it would not be enough
There is no cure for what ails, not even you

You speak of hope but I have none
at least I don’t today
But I cannot do what must be done
To take this pain away

On days like this I am tired of life
of the pain I carry like a canker
It’s a Dickensian chain heavy and thick
and its weight wants to drag me under

I like words with texture. To describe clouds for example: felted or woolen skies. Here is an other example of clouds:

Whales of gray
clouds drift past my windows
blown by on fierce seas of gusty wind
While the sun teases and taunts us with golden rays
The first cold of winter is triggered
and as the first flakes fall
i think spring

And i write a lot about life and what it means, i write what i see and feel about it and people:  

I walk in the world, a pretender, a lonely visitor
I don't know the path and there is no map
There is no place to stop to ask for directions
I watch the world around me and despair  

People don't see outside, their universe is inward
It easier to ignore the downtrodden, to close our eyes
Our houses are crammed with baubles
Shiny toys that blind us to what is right in front of us

And we scamper on whirling wheels
Like hamsters ignorant of life's meaning
I am one - and there's no reason or rhyme
Ours is to race to the end; to the finality of death

Desperately I search my cage for a map
Seeking the reasons for my incarceration
But i am terrified to take that step
Afraid of what i think life really means.

I hope that answers your question and the examples helped a bit. Thanks for the question.

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@Wayne Gray

Yes. I love the power of storms and the ocean. They're these tremendous forces of nature - awesome, impossible to stand against. Instead we're battered about, forced to simply endure. If we're lucky, we're looking at them from some safe place, marveling at their power. You can see my take on them both here.
Thunder

Just Breathe

Thanks for the great question.

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Hope you enjoyed those as much as I did. We’ll be back next month with another edition. In the meantime, send me additional questions for any of our authors, and I’ll do my best to have them answered.