Writing practice: more work on metaphor/imagery
premise: all human action is condensed thought, conscious or unconscious
as for embers of the hand, creating a metaphor is to identify one specific aspect of a thing and relate it to one aspect of another thing that creates an image.
so for tears, say. what’s one specific aspect? liquid, sure. salt water, sure. but that’s what it is. what’s one aspect of it? condensed pain. or joy. but condensed thought. but what else? perhaps not of the thing, but of its generation? like squeezing an orange? or wringing a towel? the nectar of our pain. that’s not bad, maybe not great, but not terrible. of course nectar tastes sweet and is something good, and tears are something bad (when tears of pain) so nectar doesn’t really work.