Likened to Icy Auroras

In the wild configuration
of a Norfolk night,
where weather
smells like peat and moss,

we are at peace—

Until we are woken
by snow-light through blinds,
dazzling our eyes,
everything needled

with ice as if speckled with stars.

So we venture out
to stare at the whiteness—
instead we are met
with watermelon sky

turning colours like a kaleidoscope.

In that moment
we are like icy auroras
shimmering and drenched
in particles

that are smashing the Norfolk night.

Kim M. Russell, 3^rd February 2026

It’s the first Tuesday and Poetics in February and, at the dVerse Poets Pub, we are writing simile poems with Dora, who says that there’s “nothing like a well-turned phrase with a simile that makes us smile with pure joy at its relatability”.

Dora reminds us of what a simile is, why and how we use them, and gives us a wide range of examples.

Whatever the subject we choose, Dora would like us to use the rhetorical device of a simile: all the way through our poems like Brimhall; or one or two to bring our poetry to full effect, whether in the beginning, middle, or end; or use it like Ciardi to structure the whole of our poems, enlarging on a single image of comparison.