Last Saturday I posted the first “Get Your Golden Shovel” prompt as a collaborative project for our writing community. In this round-up, I share my golden shovel poem as well as those that were contributed by the community.
What’s a golden shovel poem? It’s a poetic form originally created by Terrance Hayes. Check out the rules here.
I want to give a big thanks to each of you that were willing to give this first experiment a try:
@gigglingfattie (No Love For Fatties)
Kathleen
@midlifecatlady64 (MidLife Cat Lady)
Eric Drury (The Thoughtful Beggar)
Golden Shovel No. 01
“Time says hush. By the gong of time you live.”
The Gong of Time by Carl Sandburg (Honey and Salt)
Hurry, Hurry, Hush
By Monty Vern
Rushing waters of our time;
Ebbing tide says
Hurry, hurry, hush.
Un-lived memories race by;
Yanked away by the
Quickening gong
Of
Our impatient time;
Shh! Will you?
Let’s pause a moment to live.
Guests’ Poems:
by No Love For Fatties
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.
by Kathleen
Pangs mean it is time
The body says
Now hush
We are close by
Near to the
reverberating gong
Thinking of
passed time
with you
Honoring you by how we live
by Edward V. Fuller
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.
by MidLife Cat Lady
by Sam “Goldie” Kirk
In youth we confidently flirt with time
by Eric Drury (The Thoughtful Beggar)
And here is one with a twist on the form (after all, creativity rules over rules):
by The Dreamgirls Writes
How cool was that! I love seeing all of the different takes on this. If you want to give this line a try feel free to leave your poem in the comments below (or link your post to this one).
Thanks again to each of the guest contributors. Stay tuned for next prompt coming soon. Everyone is welcome to join in.
Be well,
Monty
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Monty’s Blahg 
Oooo so much fun!!
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Yay!!!!
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Completely missed this. But remedied right away and wrote a post. Hehe. A poem, of course. And in my impulsiveness, I forgot a word! Of course, but that too was rectified immediately. Poem’s on my blog. Should also link to this post. Great challenge. Lots of fun. Thank you for this. xx
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Awesome!!!! Off to check it out now. Thanks for joining.
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Love the diversity!
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Yes!!!
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This was so much fun to do!
I think I read the rules wrong lol, because you quoted mine as an unexpected twist!
It was fun nevertheless, can’t wait for the next one!
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Loved your piece regardless. The next one will be fun. Some really colorful words! The post is already up!
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Thank you!! Already checked it out.. my post will be out in a couple of days :))
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But lol I just read the rules properly , what an oversight!
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Haha. No worries! It would have been impossible I think to have met all the prompts by following the rules strictly. It called for creativity!
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Yeah, exactly!
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I feel the sun shines just a little brighter when you do pause and live in the moment. I liked the smart use of ‘of’ as the entire line.
I see Kathleen did the same. Is she your other half? As she doesn’t seem to have a blog linked?
Good stuff! I’m excited for the next prompt!
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Kathleen is my editor (and mom)…hehe.
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A personal editor? How awesome is that?!
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Hehe. Absolutely wonderful. My published books would have been a disaster without her and all in exchange for a editor’s copy. In reality it’s more proof-reading then editing as I like to keep my “quirky” voice which is grammatically challenged.
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The time poem has me thinking more about time and how I use it. Cool prompts here Monty.
Ryan
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Thanks Ryan!
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