This is an invitation to all of you poets (or potential poets, which is all of you) out there to join me in a new collaborative series I’m calling “Get Your Golden Shovel”. Here is how it will work.
Each Saturday in February (as an initial experiment and then I’ll decide whether to continue), will be Golden Shovel Saturday. I’ll post a prompt consisting of one or two lines from a well known poem on Saturday, then we all will create a new poem using the Golden Shovel technique and share it with each other. I think it will be very interesting to see how different each of our pieces are despite pulling from the same source of material.
What is the Golden Shovel technique, you ask? It’s a poetic form originally created by the poet, Terrance Hayes. Check out the “rules” here. There is also an example provided.
Golden Shovel No. 01
“Time says hush. By the gong of time you live.”
The Gong of Time by Carl Sandburg (Honey and Salt)
You can either post on your own blog and link to the prompt post so that we can all see it and further share or include it in the prompt post’s comments section.
While there is not any hard deadlines, the intention is to share your Golden Shovel poem during the prompt week before the following Golden Shovel Saturday. I’ll target posting my own poem along with some of yours with links in a recap post ahead of the following weeks.
That’s it. Today’s the the first prompt. Feel free to give it a try with the prompt line above if you want to get your feet wet.
I’m looking forward to seeing what develops from this. It should be fun!
Be well,
Monty
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Monty’s Blahg 
Love this idea!!!
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Yay!! Would love to have you on board for a try 🙂
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I am not a poet but will give it a try!
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I only started writing a couple of years ago. Glad your willing to experiment with me. Yay!
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It is time.
No one says
“Hush”
by the by.
Even the
ringing gong
of
so much time.
Not even you,
by the days you
live.
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Very nice! Thanks for joining the experiment. ❤️
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Oooo I worthy distraction from report card writing tomorrow!
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Yay!!!!
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Yay!
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Oh this such a great idea! I’m also interested in seeing how people write different things despite having the same prompt.
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Awesome!!! Would love to have you join! ☺️
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Ok, so, here’s the deal – I usually post my creative writing pieces every Thursday. While I wrote a piece in response to your prompt just now, I don’t want to publish it until Thursday morning (EST). Is that something that would work for you?
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Of course!!! I’m doing the round-up on Friday (China time) and can link yours in once you post. I’m just happy to have you aboard!
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This is definitely out of my comfort zone, but I’m into it for sure!
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It’s a bit of a word game/puzzle but really no wrong answers.
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And that’s probably why it felt so good to join in.
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Found your challenge through Giggling Fattie’s blog post
And I am excited to play along!
I’m also glad this challenge is once a week 🙂
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So happy to have you join!! Welcome 😊
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Ah, The days of Time
The wind, it Says
It’s time to Hush
And listen, By
Focusing on The
Sound of the church Gong
Which reminds you Of
How much Time
There is Left.
For you to Live
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Wow!! Beautifully written! The second to last line is not per the form…not sure if this is intentional or not. It’s fine to play with the rules so no worries if it is. Just wanted to let you know if you meant to have the “you” in the last line up above.
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Sorry, I just went by the first word as the last word. Guess I don’t understand Form
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No. Not a problem at all. This is all for fun and the “rules” are just guidance. I love it as it is.
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If you wanted to conform to the traditional form you wouldn’t need to change any of the words. Just modify the last two line breaks:
Ah, The days of Time The wind, it Says It’s time to Hush And listen, By Focusing on The Sound of the church Gong Which reminds you Of How much Time There is left for You. to Live
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