Metaphors, ideas and poetry

I've been thinking of a few metaphors that we could use:

• Water in a bottle/tank/glass - in rows, like an army
• Pipes
• Water in the form of animals (specially water dwelling ones like fish)
• drops (maybe a drop holding a scene within it)
• Ripples
• Puddles
• Waves
• Waterfall
• Rain
• Whirlpool (flush)
• swimming pool
• Bubbles
• Splash
• forms rainbows
• Water as a magnifier
• Turning into steam - to show drought
• turning red as it bleeds - or brown as it gets polluted
• Water as hands 
• Water distorts images
• Refraction of light
• Reflection (inverted image - different reality)
• Water taking the form of  a tree
• Water as cloth
• water acting as a conductor of electricity (lighting bulbs,etc)

I was also thinking that we could do a word association excercise(to form icons or images) with maybe a few of these words:

• Transparent
• Sparkling
• powerful
• flowing
• running
• life-giving
• volume
• wet
• cool
• thirsty
• fall
• clear
• muddy/dirty
• swirling
• deep
• rapids
• reflective
• conductor(?)
• still
• moving
• habitat
• liquid

I also found some poems based on the Kaveri that could help us with imagery:

Gold and beads born of Northern Hill
Garland and Incense born of Kodagu Hill
Pearl of South Sea and Coral of Eastern Sea
Ganga floods and benefits from the Cauvery
Food of Ceylon and riches of Kazhagam.

Pattinapappalai, Tamil epic from ca. 100 BCE

And:

http://www.carnaticdarbar.com/views/2010/views_18.asp

I have just copied parts of this article that are actually the poetry:

Saari vedalina ee Kaverini joodare                 (saari vedala)

He says in the anupallavi,

Vaaru veerani joodakadaa nav -

vaarigaabheeshtamula nosanguchu                 (saari vedala)

The river does not distinguish between the learned and the unlettered, the saint and the sinner, the emperor and the pauper. It distributes its bounty to everyone’s heart’s contentment.

Duramunanoka thaavuna garjhana

bheekaramoka thaavuna nindu karunathoni-

rathamukanoka thaavuna naduchusu

Vara Kaveri kanyakaamani                 (saari vedala)

At one spot, she hurries with great speed with a frightening roar and at another she flows with eternal karuna, this boon-giver, the Kaveri, the gem of a maiden. The rhyme of the lyric mimics the cadence of the river.

Kaveri is held to be holier than the Ganga, as she forms a garland over Sri Ranganatha’s chest while the Ganga merely took origin once upon a time from Lord Vishnu’s feet. This adornment she does in not just one place, but in three-the Aadi, Madhya and Antyarangams. But Kaveri, like Thyagaraja, is impartial to the Gods. There is no room for Siva-Vishnu discordsin the nadi pravaaha or in the nada pravaaha of the divine composer. So, he pictures the river as flowing further east, after her dalliance with the Ranga Raja, to see Panchanadeeswara, the Lord of the Five Rivers. En route, she becomes the life-sustaining force of the fourteen worlds and she has lovely koel birds singing on her banks. The second charana declares

vaedukaga kokilalu mroyaganu

veaduka rangesu jhoochi mari ee-

raedu jagamulaku jeevanamaina

moodu randu nadi natuni joodaka                 (saari vedala)

The river does not remain the same placid, idyllic scenery painted thus far. It is in her nature to reveal her primal force, her fury, her avatar as a destroyer. Those who know hydrology will tell you that she still does good by flooding periodically, churning the soil, rendering it more productive than before. But when it lasts, the fury only serves to remind man of his own diminutive nature, his frailty, his utter dependence on a higher force: a fact that the gopikas on the nouka learned to their horror later in their boat journey. Their plight is brought out in another Nouka Charithra song ‘Unnathaavunanunda niyyadu vaana’ in the apoorva raga, GhaNta. “The storm rocks the little boat, the waves spin it; ho, there is a crack in the boat. The driving rain competes with the rushing water of the river to fill the boat. The sky is darkening and there is a deafening thunder. This is the punishment for our hedonism; a right lesson for our conceit. We have no refuge than the ferocious river. Oh! This is the praLaya”, cry out thegopikas. The song brings out the full ferocity of the deluge, another dimension of the river.