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, 3rd February 2026

Image by Lightscape on Unsplash

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.

42 thoughts on “Likened to Icy Auroras”

  8. The subject is uncommmon (seems so to me, but I’m writing from Florida), so building a poetic bridge to it finds ample nail and rope in simile. Weather that “smells like peat and moss” invokes for me ancient, durable time — one drowses in it — only to waken to “snow-light” “needled with ice as if speckled with stars.” (Excellent.) And that is just proscenium to the main event of a “watermelon sky / turning colors like a kaleidoscope.” There’s something shamanic in becoming so enveloped in that auroral wonder “smashing the Norfolk night.” I am surely there, rapt and applauding.

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  10. Wow, that “watermelon sky” is delicious, Kim! We traveled to Alaska last summer (no auroras visible) but came back home to Iowa to see the Northern Lights from our own drive way!

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  17. Oh Kim, you have a way with words. I especially love the imagery of”snow-light through blinds, dazzling our eyes, / everything needled / with ice as if speckled with stars”. The “watermelon sky” was a beautiful surprise.

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  19. MY GOODNESS!! What a gorgeous poem. You brought the Norfolk winter to us in the most lovely way …. I am so sorry I did not get to your part of the world during all my UK travels.

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