2012 Poetry Month

A Washing of Hands metaphor

Sometimes it seems I’ve died and gone to Metaphor Heaven.

As when I first read former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s poem, “A Washing of Hands.”
Here’s what Kooser says about metaphor:

“you want both sides to work perfectly well together. It’s a matter of paring away the things that won’t work in the comparison and being sure that the only things in the comparison are ones that play on both sides.”

A Washing of Hands” by Ted Kooser begins,

She turned on the tap and a silver braid
unraveled over her fingers.
She cupped them, weighing that tassel,
first in one hand and then the other,

In fact, I’m sending you to Lauren Camp’s post to read the whole poem right now. Click here.

from morguefile.com
from morguefile.com

Heaven indeed.

 

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