walking without metaphors

Fragments function almost completely without metaphors. They are replaced by gestures. A gesture is a sensory observation, a riff of thought which is complete in itself; in this completeness, it lures the reader into itself (every love starts with attraction), making the poem possible.

Murat Nemet-Nejat: A Few Thoughts on Fragments from Jerome Rothenberg’s blog Poems and Poetics

Recently I have added two more items to my collection of things without metaphors, for a total of three.

First, a shocking line near the end of Ursula LeGuin’s novel Tehanu:

Tenar walked without metaphors.

Second, Jonathan Skinner’s remarks to Gary Snyder at the Poets House reading recently that Gary’s poetry made little use of metaphor.

Third, above.