Metaphor: Skeleton of a Poem (cont.)

In "The Wind Woman," Esbnesen compares the winter wind to a woman who is white and sharp. Living in Minnesota (as Esbensen did), I can easily see, and more importantly, feel this comparison and it rings true for me. In his poem about sea turtles, Cyrus compares the turtles to slow paddleboats. I love that image! I see the turtles' flippers dipping and circling in the water like the oars on a small boat. And I see the turtles' shells as the oval hulls of the boats. It's one of those metaphors that works so well it seems utterly obvious...except that I've never thought of it or seen it used before!

Some poets seem to spill out metaphors as easily as they breathe. Not me. I have to put effort into coming up with metaphors, especially because the first ones I come up with tend to be cliches. The only way for me to dig deeper and come up with treasures is to brainstorm. Here's how I do it.

First, I decide on the object I need a metaphor for. For this example, I'm going to use a birch tree. Then I look at a birch tree, either in real life (which is easy in this case, since there's one in the back yard) or on the Internet.

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