What It's Like

Time yourself as you write in some way (with a timer, the length of a song, or the length of a page). Write for roughly 10 minutes in response to the following prompt. Try to write for the whole time, without stopping, in sentences, with no line breaks. Work to get all of your thoughts on the page, without worrying about what you are writing, or how. It is encouraged to follow wherever your mind leads.

Writing Prompt:
How are you feeling?

What It's Like
A simile is an explicit comparison between two dissimilar things, linked most often with the words as or like. Other linking words can include resemble, echo, seem, as if, as though, the way that, etc. Because simile compares two unlike things, it simultaneously emphasizes sameness while insisting upon difference. Simile is one of the oldest identifiable poetic devices in literature, and pervades almost all forms and occasions of communication. As with any figurative device, simile serves to illuminate and create meaning, to discover and communicate a truth not accessible through literal language.

Poems to Read:
Abid B Al-Abras, "Last Simile"
Angela de Hoyos, "Where the Wound Lies"
W. S. Merwin, "Separation"
Lisel Mueller, "Love Like Salt"

Questions to consider in writing, or in discussion with others:

• In each poem, what two things are being compared?
• How are they alike? How are they dissimilar?
• What does the comparison reveal about the things being compared? What does this comparison reveal about the speaker in the poem?

Writing Assignment
Select one of the emotions from your freewrite. Compose a list of 15-20 comparisons for that emotion. Do this quickly, without thinking too long or hard about the comparisons you’ve written. Select the comparison that is most surprising or strange. Write a poem that describes an emotion and begins with the most strange/surprising comparison you listed.