the art of the simile
sim·i·le /ˈsiməlē/ (noun): a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid (e.g., as brave as a lion, crazy like a fox).
Similes are powerful and poetic, and I am terrible at them. And—though perhaps I am alone in that—in case I’m not, here are some similes I’ve collected, written by other poets. Maybe they can serve as examples for you, too, or at least encourage you to read more writing by these poets.
"Word nests like a sunflower seed between teeth."
-Hala Alyan, “Souvenirs”
"I circled your chest / like a restless bird."
-K-Ming Chang, “The Chinese Sappho”
"Glittering with pollen, the hummingbirds hovering at your head / Like a crown."
-Joy Priest
“You inherit // a country just like an addiction.”
-Scherezade Siobhan
"The wind is sweet but serrated, / like cider slipping over to vinegar."
-Catherine Pierce, “What the Hour Before the Tornado Feels like”
"Like a diseased lung, the city is shutting down."
-Crystal Williams, “Extinction”
“I was green as a banana, / and my mother, blessed as she was with the gift / of work-hardened fists, beat me ripe.”
-Destiny O. Birdsong, "Bildungsroman"
"The panic attacks came on / like minutes."
-Joy Priest
"Cirrus clouds slide smooth / as razors across that throat of sky."
-Julia Koets
"The night unspooled slow as a ripple / on a reed-choked pond."
-Diana Whitney, “Light Betrayal in August”
"Who am I / to carry loss like a back pocket flag?"
-Alicia Mountain, “Deadbolt Door Syndrome”
"I pressed each new day to my palm like a splinter."
-Paige Quiñones
"It wasn’t about death so much as it was about the warping / of metal around a body / like a lover."
-Caitlin M Plunkett, “Aftermath”
"His voice— / it filled me to the core / like a skeleton."
-Ocean Vuong, “Threshold”
"Pines like shadow puppets / against the fading sky."
-Jana-Lee Germaine, “Lake Night”
"In the hungry dawn / strange syllables stain our mouths / like berries picked deep / in the woods."
-Linda Pastan
“A city enters you like a lover.”
-Paul Brancato, “From Madrid, for Baghdad”
“A textbook / announced that should we ever pluck / a classmate from an icy lake, / we must undress not only them / but ourselves and press like stickers / until help arrived.”
-Michael Meyerhofer, “Advice for Winter”
“Like snow, like breath, like rust, like feet, / night will come again.”
-Phillip B. Williams, “Mastery”
“I hold this winter in my mouth like a pearl.”
-Safiya Sinclair, “America the Beautiful”
“We think as human / beings we deserve every last thing. Say / the element copper. Incandescence / glowing bright and soft like Venus.”
-Natasha Saje, “Alive”
“What any body wants: / another to cling to it / like bracken.”
-Erin Adair-Hodges, “The Cartographer Gets Lost”
“I believe beauty is in the long want, the hot chase, / in under-lit parking lots, small disappointments / stacked up like coins.”
-Libby Burton
“Each headlong drop into sleep / the body jostles like a barn exploding / with swallows.”
-Keith Leonard
“My sister's friend / wore a pond like a crown; / he handwrote her a letter / before fading / beneath water.”
-Sean Shearer
“My body still craving to be broken into / like a window; yours the rock that smashes.”
-Steve Bellin-Oka
“The orchard buzzed / like a maternity ward.”
-Angela Veronica Wong
“The heart kicks / like a strangled rabbit.”
-Marge Piercy
“i built myself up like a layer of bricks.”
-Fariha Róisín
That’s all for tonight. Thanks for being here.