Get Your Golden Shovel! No. 04 Round-Up

Last Saturday I posted the fourth (and final, for now) “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 week’s challenge a try:

@gigglingfattie (No Love For Fatties)

Eric Drury (The Thoughtful Beggar)

The Dreamgirl Writes


Golden Shovel No. 04

The sky is blue, or the rain falls with its spills of pearl”

from “Spring” by Mary Oliver

A Mid-Winter’s New Moon

By Monty Vern

Soft pillows stained wet by the

Anger streaming down her setting-sun sky

Flushed cheeks; She is,

No was, the warmth in my black and blue

Existence; I abandoned her or

No, I banished myself from the

Cool rain

That falls

On a stifling hot mid-August night with

Its

Splashing spills

Of

Encouragement that coaxes me open to see the beauty of a pearl.

The blue-blood hue around

exhausted eyes and their

Mourning wreath

Of

Darkness,

And the

Salt-soaked pillows, Her light leaves

And I shiver naked in the bitter cold of

A mid-winter’s new moon; Let the

End of my time on this world

Unfurl.

As you can see I extended the poem by using the next line in Mary Oliver’s original poem: “Around their wreath of darkness the leaves of the world unfurl.”


Guests’ Poems:

Monsoon Love

As I lay looking up, scanning across the

vastness that is the upward sky,

I can’t help but wonder, what is?

What is the reason for your eyes so blue?

What is it that I did or didn’t do to make…

by gigglingfattie (No Love For Fatties)

The Big The

up in the sky

all that is

beyond the blue

were we discovered, or

did we…

by Eric Drury

There’s a whole world out there in the

midst of my chaos. But all I can see is the sky

for it’s all I can comprehend. It is

vast and endless, so very blue.

It reminds me of…

by The Dreamgirl Writes

What’s next for The Golden Shovel? Stay tuned for a relaunch in April during Poetry Month. I’ll be making a couple of adjustments to give folks a bit more flexibility on prompts and timing.

Meanwhile, I’ve got a slight twist I’d like to try in March. Check out The Silver Lining. Hope to see you there.

Be well,

Monty

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