Rediscovering Sight (Golden Shovel)

Since it’s poetry month, I thought I would try out some new forms and I bumped into a great blog post from A Different Perspective listing out 13 poetic form prompts. A big thanks to them for the inspiration

Prompt 5

Write an Golden Shovel poem or

Write a poem incorporating the theme of change

A Different Perspective by muisopsis

So I’ve actually written quite a bit in this form and am currently running a poetry collaboration based on this form. Check out “Welcome to Golden Shovel April” for all the details and invitation. Hope you join along!

Here are the guidelines for a Golden Shovel:

– Take a line (or lines) from an existing poem.

– Use each word in the line as an end word in your poem.

– Keep the end words in order.

– Make sure to credit the poet of the original line.

Also you can check out these round-up posts from a golden shovel even I ran earlier this year for lots of examples both from myself and the writing/blogging community: Golden Shovel Week 1 Round-Up, Week 2 Round-Up, Week 3 Round-Up, Week 4 Round-Up.

“Golden Shovel” were words used in the original Golden Shovel poem by Terrance Hayes (pulling from Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool”.

Ok, let’s get out our Golden Shovels! Actually, I’m cheating a bit here. There was a Golden Shovel that I recently wrote that also incorporates the theme of change (the optional prompt here) and I thought I would share it again here as I really like how it came out. Thanks for accommodating my lazy indulgence!

Rediscovering Sight

after Robert Frost’s “After Apple Picking”

I
chase the cannot
from the rub
of darkness, embrace the
strangeness
of yes, peeling my eyes out from
underneath my
lids, rediscovering sight.

So, what do you think about the Golden Shovel form? Wanna give it a try? Check here for some prompt suggestions.

Be well,

Monty

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