Making Pictures With Words

I follow someone on Twitter who is an artist.  Sometimes, he shares images of his art.  He uses color, and shape, and texture to communicate emotions.  He is pretty good at it. 
I am a bit of an artist myself when I set my mind to it.  I paint pictures with words.  Sometimes I share the word pictures here or on Facebook.  I don't know how good I am at it, really.  I get some positive feedback, but I am one that tends to doubt myself, and so I attribute that to people "being nice."  Musical expression can also be a way of "painting."  One uses dynamics and in opera, anyway, the addition of little ornaments to make a piece more dramatic, or more comical.  Usually, the composer sets these out for you, but over the years, many great singers have made certain arias their own, and their ornamentation tends to become "standard".
  Back to painting with words.  I have done many poetry exercises that ask you to use words to literally describe a scene.  In this first one, you are given a word and then asked to list things that the word brings to mind that describe the sensation, feeling, or object.

Speed:  swallows racing, air rushing past my ears, Michael Schumacher driving.

Orange:  Tangerines in a green glass bowl, Autumn leaves, Oklahoma clay baked in Summer sun, a traffic cone.

Fear:  Ice water poured on your head, The air being sucked away from you, falling and falling with nothing to catch hold of.

Greed:  The kid who won;t share his toys and takes yours, too.  SUV drivers who use 2 lanes at once, the dog who tried to keep more tennis balls than his mouth will hold.

Yellow:  Morning sun, an oriole, mustard.

These associations mean something to me because of experiences I have had.  Others will have different images, but they should mean enough to all of us to transmit the feeling desired.  I particularly like my ice water poured on your head image for fear, because that is exactly how it feels to me when something REALLY scares me.  Cold dread starts at the crown of my head and flows over my whole body.  Like ice water.  My whole being experiences the fear.

Here are a few other images gleaned from exercises:

The moon, broken off like a discarded dinner plate.
A red flower, brilliant as the sequins on a diva's gown.
Her fingers, delicate as hummingbird wings.
The island stretches out from the coast like a yogi embracing dawn.
Your backbone, ridged like an old washboard.
Soft as a baby's kisses.
The bicyclist, careening down the hill like an avalanche.
Crazy bird!  It's song like the grate of a rusted roof turbine.
His monotonous voice, like the drone of a thousand computer (cpu) cooling fans.
She spun off like a new series from an old sitcom.
Days pass like the freight trains speeding through town.

Teeth of a comb, feet of a chair, head of cabbage, hand of bananas, hair up in a "bun", Rabbit Ears on old TVs, Heel of bread, eyes on a potato, hands on a clock.

Some of those are fun, some I could probably come up with better images if I sat and thought about it long enough.

Here is a little composition I wrote almost ten years ago about a typical morning for me.

Alarm blare
of radio news
A chattering background
As I shuffle to the bathroom
Where light stabs my eyes
And I struggle awake
With water, soap and toothpaste.
With whiny impatience
The dog awaits release from
His kennel so he
May complete his morning
Requirements
Of excretion and exercise.
The cat stares her displeasure
Upon us all
For her dish is bereft of food.
I set about, once dressed,
As a great fixer of
Domestic calamities
Such as these
Restoring order to bedclothes
and tabletops
Feeding the starving
And waking the house for a new day.

These days, there is no dog, and the radio is usually blasting classical music from KCSC.  The morning routine now also includes turning on the cell phone so I won't have to wait for it to boot up when I am ready to go walk.  It's pretty fast, but still , once I'm ready to go, I'm ready to GO, not fool with my phone.
At any rate, I am now weary and achy and feeling almost all of my 53 years.  Time to go try and sleep. 
Try some word pictures of your own.  It's fun.