Some Similes

Have I mentioned that I love Norman Dubie? A year ago I’d never heard of him. Now, for months, the crowd inside me has been going mad. Among his strengths is his similes. I know a lot of critics don’t like similes. It’s cooler to be into metaphors, more sophisticated, etc. But I might love similes more. I even love a bunch of them thrown unrelated into one poem together á la Anne Sexton. Norman Dubie doesn’t do it that way though. Here are some of his, line breaks ignored:

“He approaches them like a man falling through crust in a snow field.” (Elegies For the Ocher Deer)

“It falls stiff like a drunk, like a drunk falling onto a whore.” (After Three Photographs of Brassai - describing a pencil)

“The first Wednesday after the peace with Germany was like a new brook under the rain, which only rain could make.” (Anima Poeta)

“Milk coming like white hairpins from her breast.” (Pastoral)

“Her breasts filled the window like a mouth.” (The Obscure)

“They are all wired out like flowers.” (Trees of Madame Blavatsky)

“The geese broke from the shadows like handkerchiefs out of the sleeves of black dresses at a burial.” (Monologue of Two Moons, Nudes with Crests)

“The gas jets are on: they are like fountains of the best water.” (Monologue of Two Moons)

“Black water ran off her dress like a lowered hem.” (The Dun Cow and the Hag)

“A trickle of blood at the knuckle of the thumb like the single red thread through the lace hood and jesses of the Medici falcons.” (Groom Falconer)

“The earth like a crust of bread absorbed them.” (The Saints of Negativity)

Got any good similes? I’d love to hear them.