Poem 17

Number 17

Quiet as a mouse. Proud as a lion. Sour as a lemon. Sweet as sugar. Blah, blah, blah. We’ve heard it all before. Cliches can be the bane of a writer’s existence. So today, we are going to make them work for us.

Make a list of clichés – try to have an even number. Or, go ahead and use the list provided below.

proud as a peacock
sour as a lemon
sweet as sugar
bright as the sun
quiet as a mouse
black as ink
hite as snow
solid as a rock

Now, mix the beginnings and the endings of the clichés to create new similes. Go through the list more than once to get some that you like.


These new images might be surprising (sour as snow), pleasant-sounding (sweet as a peacock), or even strange (proud as ink.) Choose one or several of these new images and use them as a basis for a new poem, maybe even a haiku or a small stone of observation.

Laughing

   Laughing

      Laughing

As mad as death and taxes

She sits

Telling outlandish tales of

Tepid tea for marching men

Clocks and kings

And mercenary blackbirds

Clear as rock and

Wise as leather

She is surrounded by 

The calm of chaos

Aware of multitudes

She is as innocent as a ghost