GOLDEN SHOVELS

 WHAT IS GOLDEN SHOVELS??  :

• The Golden Shovel is a recently developed form of poetry . It was devised by Terrance Hayes ( 2010 ) in homage to Gwendolyn Brooks . In this the last word of each line forms a second, pre – existing poem ( or section thereof ) , to which the poet is paying homage . The results of this technique can be quite different in subject, tone, and texture from the source poem, depending upon the ingenuity and imagination of the poet who undertakes to compose one. As Robert Lee Brewer has pointed out, such a poem is part cento, part erasure. But don’t let the word “erasure” mislead you. A poem in this form adds something even where it subtracts; the sum isn’t necessarily greater than the parts, but in keeping with the spirit of paying tribute, it is more than equal to them.

Example of Golden Shovel :

           

The Golden Shovel

BY TERRANCE HAYES

after Gwendolyn Brooks

I. 1981

 

When I am so small Da’s sock covers my arm, we

cruise at twilight until we find the place the real

 

men lean, bloodshot and translucent with cool.

His smile is a gold-plated incantation as we

 

drift by women on bar stools, with nothing left

in them but approachlessness. This is a school

 

I do not know yet. But the cue sticks mean we

are rubbed by light, smooth as wood, the lurk

 

of smoke thinned to song. We won’t be out late.

Standing in the middle of the street last night we

 

watched the moonlit lawns and a neighbor strike

his son in the face. A shadow knocked straight

 

Da promised to leave me everything: the shovel we

used to bury the dog, the words he loved to sing

 

his rusted pistol, his squeaky Bible, his sin.

The boy’s sneakers were light on the road. We

 

watched him run to us looking wounded and thin.

He’d been caught lying or drinking his father’s gin.

 

He’d been defending his ma, trying to be a man. We

stood in the road, and my father talked about jazz,

 

how sometimes a tune is born of outrage. By June

the boy would be locked upstate. That night we

 

got down on our knees in my room. If I should die

before I wake. Da said to me, it will be too soon.

 

 (Note: None of poems we present belong to us. We present an organised record and analysis of them. All copyrights are reserved to the original author and we are not using plagiarized work. The originality of writes are verified to the fullest extent we can .)                                     FORMAT OF GOLDEN SHOVEL :

           If you pull a line with six words, your poem would be six lines long. If you pull a stanza with 24 words, your poem would be 24 lines long. And so on.

TIPS FOR WRITTING GOLDEN SHOVEL :

• Take a line (or lines) from a poem you admire.

• Use each word in the line (or lines) as an end word in your poem.

• Keep the end words in order.

• Give credit to the poet who originally wrote the line (or lines).

• The new poem does not have to be about the same subject as the poem that offers the                    end words.

If you want to try your hand at poetry and are not sure what is the best form to write  , you should try ‘GOLDEN SHOVEL’ . It is extremely easy and helps in enhancing your creativity . GOLDEN SHOVEL  is a form which I would recommend to starters . 

So; 

Readers,

What are you waiting for??

Pick up a pen and a paper and start your first and best GOLDEN SHOVEL.....

Written by: Shreya ( member of TeamPoetReeForest )