This article explores how sign language poets use iconic superstructure as a concrete domain for metaphorical extension of signs. Illustrative examples are taken from an anthology of British Sign Language poetry available at http://www.bristol.ac.uk/bslpoetryanthology. Poetic features of and between individual poems are examined through a close reading approach. The analysis reveals that iconic superstructure in creative sign language can be found in different parameters of the sign: handshape, location, movement and palm orientation. A metaphorical interpretation is not inherent in the individual lexical signs but iconicity is. When iconic signs are placed into a poetic context a metaphorical meaning is produced.