Image Week Day Four: Find the Truths the World is Trying to Teach You

Science and the human experience have a lot in common. Soft reeds bend instead of breaking. Adaptable people bend instead of breaking. Water is Mother Nature’s most destructive force even though it has no sharp or hard edges, and humans who take as much time as water can create canyons without breaking stone. Stars shine millions of years after they burn out, and so do people. The world around us can teach us a thousand things, so it’s a wonderful writing tool.

I was taught that a poem must achieve one of two things:

• To show the reader something new
  Or

• To show them something old and make them see it in a new way.

You could say that’s what metaphors are for: To flesh out a universal experience in a way the reader has never considered before. Metaphorical power is a muscle you learn by exercising it. You must find little pieces of truth in the world around you until it becomes second nature. I don’t want to work you too hard, so I’m not going to demand a poem out of you today. Instead, I’d like you to see the world around you for its metaphorical power. Everywhere you go, find the truths the world is trying to teach you.

If you feel drawn to write, go ahead, but focus on seeing your planet in a new way today. See it for what it has to teach.

Since @KaarNN brought us a poem about hope, let's read it again:

Hope is a Thing With Feathers

by Emily Dickinson

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.