Quotes About Metaphor

Love is like an hourglass, with the heart filling up as the brain empties.

Happiness could be like a head cold. Or cholera. Catching.

Have you heard of la petite mort?" "The little death?" "It's what the French call it. A metaphor, I assure you. I have always thought it more an affirmation of life. Or perhaps a reason for living." And then, with all the wicked promise he felt in his soul, he looked up at her through his lashes and murmured, "Shall I show you?

I once saw a small child go to an electric light switch as say, "Mamma, can I open the light?" She was using the age-old language of exploration, the language of art. It was a sort of metaphor, but she was not using it as ornamentation.

The man was so smooth he wouldn't slide on an oil slick.

Like a snake, my heart has shed its skin. I hold it there in my hand, full of honey and wounds. The thoughts that nested in your folds, where are they now?...

The Little Mute Boy" The little boy was looking for his voice. (The king of the crickets had it.) In a drop of water the little boy was looking for his voice. I do not want it for speaking with; I will make a ring of it so that he may wear my silence on his little finger In a drop of water the little boy was looking for his voice. (The captive voice, far away, put on a cricket's clothes.)

Song of the Barren Orange Tree" Woodcutter. Cut out my shadow. Free me from the torture of seeing myself fruitless. Why was I born among mirrors? The daylight revolves around me. And the night herself repeats me in all her constellations. I want to live not seeing self. I shall dream the husks and insects change inside my dreaming into my birds and foliage. Woodcutter. Cut out my shadow. Free me from the torture

Like a snake, my heart has shed its skin. I hold it here in my hand, full of honey and wounds. - New Heart

Death laid its eggs in the wound

If a cat were to give birth in an oven, would you call what she gave birth to kittens or bread?

Sleep swallowed her like a pond gulping a pebble.

You will always be the bread and the knife, not to mention the crystal goblet and—somehow—the wine.

There's nothing better than good sex. But bad sex? A peanut butter and jelly sandwich is better than bad sex.

Every boy is a snake, is a lily Every pearl is a lynx, is a girl Sweet like harmony, made into flesh

Recognizing the huge challenge that lay ahead, Murdock brought in a speaker to inspire the troops. A renowned rock climber named Todd Skinner, had been the first person ever to ascend a Himalayan peak called Trango Tower. "We needed a metaphor," Murdock said. "Todd came and talked to us about how intimidating the peak looked from base camp as they started to sort their gear. He said they realized they could only climb it by getting on the wall.

No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky.

If you're mad at your kid, you can either raise him to be a nose tackle or send him out to play on the freeway. It's about the same.

We had a C-section. That's when the baby comes out like toast.

To my mind, it's one of the deepest gratifications the poet or fiction writer knows. I mean, the internal stumbling upon some satisfactory answer to the question, What is this like? Or, What does this remind me of? A comparison is laboriously but successfully introduced. You meet your metaphor, and it's good.

Roll gently onto your back for me, and know my teeth are made of feathers.

And that makes it okay?" "Yep. Because that's the balance." "And I, to keep within your metaphor, disturbed the balance?" "Exactly. That's the beauty of our system. It can be tweaked and twisted—Lord knows I do it all the time—but when you keep within it, right or wrong, it somehow works. When you don't, when you lose balance even with the best of intentions, it leads to chaos and catastrophe." "That

I'm going to serve up his balls for breakfast. Your job, to keep within this metaphor, is to do the grocery shopping. Can you handle that?" That

A poet who equates his soul with the fourfold metaphor of night, death, the mother, and the sea is thinking figuratively as fiercely as did the Hermeticists and the Kabbalists.