Metaphors Alive: Pigs, Paper, and Little Boats on Ice

It is always useful to discuss your writing blocks with your children. They know how to knock down, restack, find a new space on the floor. They know when you might need standard wood or red Legos. They even have the Bionicals or Biker Barbies you'll need to animate the rooms.

So last night, when my article for today still wasn't done, I talked to my older daughter, and she started brainstorming with me. Words flew around the room, bumped into the mirror, splashed off the faucets. It was a veritable flood before we finally started mopping up, figuring we'd done our time and could go scot free with a possible article topic.

We settled on the metaphor of breaking-the-ice. It was a little chilly to pitch our tents out on the rock-hard lake, but the night was clear and we could see the Big Dipper. And besides, after a major storm, isn't it fun to just kick back and count your lucky stars?

After the party had really started, my daughter wanted a slushie and I wanted a tall glass of iced tea. So we each took our pick, found a spot on the ice, and started chipping away.

Before we knew it, we'd gone round in too many circles and we'd broken more ice than we'd meant to. Oops. We were floating on our own little ice island with no hopes of getting back to land; then, while we were still discussing whether to throw in the towel, Glynn came to the rescue and sent us a boat. Darlene, God bless her, sent a pig. Which wasn't of any particular use, but it made us smile.

We all have to be on the same page,

already full of words and charts and
even a tiny photograph, so we fold
the page just so to make a boat,
a small boat like a dinghy. It’s
crowded because it has to carry
all of us, such a flimsy little thing
for so much weight. We sit very still
in capsized fear as our little boat
glides across the placid surface.
There is no wind.

Darlene's poetic commentary on political makeup...

If you tint the
lips of a swine
with red
or pink
or gloss
or matte,
I will deny
the tube
you used
as being mine.

All RAP Participants

Thomas's Take a Hike
Karin’s Ton of Bricks
Maureen’s So You Want to Open a Conversation
Abigail’s MIA
Glynn’s On the Same Page
Monica’s The Best Medicine
Diane’s Whale Watching
Violet’s Pin Money
Darlene’s That Ain't No Bull
Laura’s Thin Line
Karen's Broken Heart

This post is the follow up for the RAP prompt offered in Guy Kawasaki Says to Use Poetry in Business.

Image by Will Coles. Used with permission via Flickr. Post by L.L. Barkat, author of God in the Yard: Spiritual Practice for the Rest of Us.

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