I”ve discovered by writing and reading literary fiction that metaphors build my vision of what the author is saying or what I want to say. Everyone can write for others or themselves. But metaphors speak to me, so I’d like them to speak to you.

One of my favorite authors is Harui Murakami whose splendid metaphors touch me with the gentle serenity of sparkling water from the sun on a lake or with mystery like gentle people appearing out from tall trees in the woods.

I will tell you some of my favorites of his.

He often writes of a crow as a symbol. Here’s a quotation from him:

“He could tell when it came by from the sound, the large wings rubbing against the window. It left behind faint smudge marks on the glass, like a code waiting to be delivered.”

 

Here are others very different ones from each other.

“His thoughts went around and around, like a poor mouse stuck in an exitless maze allowed only to smell the cheese.”

“There was a silence, like the tide had gone out.”

“Then, like a sudden blackout on the stage between acts, he was alone.”

“[the ] performance of Sibelius went through the blank half of his mind, like a gentle breeze wafting in through a wide-open entrance and out through a wide-open exit.”

“Like the king whose touch turned everything to gold, every single word he uttered turned into insipid grains of sand.”

 

Some are quite humorous.

“he was as inconspicuous as a centipede in a cup of yogurt.”

“His legs were stumpy and bent like cucumbers.”

“His eyebrows were bushy and large and nearly came together in the middle. They looked like two hairy caterpillars reaching out to each other.”

 

Some are romantic.

“She had taken something important away, from his heart. Like moving furniture of a room.”

 

Some surreal.

“It’s like the rules that govern the world have begun to loosen up around us.”

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My delightful discovery is that when I read someone as poetic as Murakami my senses are more alert and I find myself musing about metaphors that come to mind all around me, often from nature, but also from carefully observing people and small animals.

 

Try thinking this way if you wish, it will open your mind like an oyster coming out of a shell!