Behind the Bones

An Exercise from My Writer’s Notebook — Developing Themes Through Imagery & Metaphor

When I was in college at Hollins University working on my BA in English, I had a wonderful professor named Jeanne Larsen. Ms Larsen was big on imagery and metaphors and using them to describe overall themes in poetry. She encouraged us to think about what themes we wanted to express — loss, death, love, trauma, etc. — and then describe those themes using imagery and metaphors. It was through this process that Bones became one of my main images and frequently used metaphors.

When I think about the word bones, it represents trauma — physical, emotional and/or mental abuse — but it also represents memories. For Ms Larsen’s exercise, I described all of the things that could happen to bones — broken, crushed, ground, shattered, decimated, discarded, buried, hidden, etc. Then I described how bones are viewed by myself and others — scary, sacred, exhibited, studied, honored, worshiped, etc. And finally, I put all of these elements together and created poetry.

Here is an example of how I use bones as imagery and a metaphor to represent the devastation I endured in a toxic relationship — Bone and Sinew:

little by little you ate away at me stripping away pith and marrow — my backbone ceased to hold me upright to support my head tilted to the sun

I gave and gave and gave ’til I was bone and sinew

In this next example, I have used bones as imagery. In Desperation, I am describing what would happen if I returned to a toxic relationship, with promises of change that may never come:

at first you’ll agree to positive exchanges and polite discourse — no excavation of our boneyard past

then it will come: bones scattered crushed beneath the weight of lies dusted shards swept up by the wind

Finally, I want to leave you with an example of how bones represents memories for me. Ethologists have studied the behavior of elephants and the way they remember and honor their ancestors. In this brief (never before published) poem, I emphasize this behavior:

Pilgrimage

Their bodies, concrete grey move like monks in a prayer procession steady, fixed gazes ahead across the Savannah — whole families in route to ancestral ground There, they will roll around the bones of their ancient ancestors — remembering They will honor their lives and deaths teach this act of alms to their calves and then slowly, amble back back to their feeding ground leaving the old to die with dignity

©2014 Lori Carlson. All Rights Reserved.

So now whenever I think of memories and how to express them, especially if they are memories that deserve to be honored and/or cherished, I will frequently use ‘rolling around the bones’ or ‘rolling bones’ as images for remembering. Here is an example of this in my poem Bittersweet:

You couldn’t have known I would give my last breath roll my bones to make you happy

Thank you all for spending some time with me. I hope you’ve enjoyed another glimpse into my Writer’s Notebook. If you’d like to see the previous articles about exercises from my notebook, check out these:

Lori Carlson writes poetry, fiction, articles and personal essays. Most of her topics are centered around Relationships, Spirituality, Life Lessons, Mental Health, and the LGBTQ+ community. She currently writes for Illumination,💜The POM💜 , The Friday Fix, House of Haiku, Know Thyself, Heal Thyself, The Purple Pen, Tempest in Under 1000, The Weekly Knob and The Rebel Poets Society.