My recent golden shovel poems
A golden shovel poem is a form of poem that originated from poet Terrance Hayes. A golden shovel follows these rules, according to this article
-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.
Here are my recent golden shovel poems.
Number one is inspired by Albert Camus, perhaps my favorite philosopher. The line I used from him comes from his book The Stranger: “I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world.” I centered my poem around a fictitious dead person dying young, similar to how Meursault died young in The Stranger.
If my life is a book, I
am a book half-opened.
I will die early. Thankfully, only my self,
my physical self, will go to
meet him. The
gentle poems prove I lived, but the gentle
casket shows the indifference
of Death. Of
his wrath. He is the
only god in this world
Number two is inspired by a line by Gwendolyn Brooks, and this is part of an assignment for English class. We had to write a golden shovel using something from her work. I used the last line of her poem Truth: “The dark hangs heavily over the eyes.” I believe her poem is about religion and wondering about God, so I made mine about atheism. I wanted to say that I respected her, and I thought her poem was cool, however, I do not believe in any God.
The concept of God, The
concept of Him in the dark
I don’t believe…no one hangs
over me, heavily
I believe this, over
the horizon, looking back, the
only things winking back are my own eyes
This next one is a response to Dulce Et Decorum Est, a poem by Wilfred Owen. It is about the horrors of war, and how if recruiters and civilians saw its horros, they would stop saying “the old lie”: “dulce et decorum est pro patria mori”, or “it is sweet and honorable to die for one’s country”. My golden shovel uses the English translation of that line, and shares the horrors of war from a nurse’s perspective.
death, it
is sordid. it is
never sweet
to work and
see this called honorable.
they're ready to
make them die.
but no, for
one dies when one’s
sold to this country
This next poem is a golden shovel and a double Haiku. It follows the typical golden shovel form shown above, yet is in a 5–7–5, 5–7–5 format. This is inspired by Edmund’s speech at the beginning of King Lear, where he laments his place in society as a bastard, but makes a wish at the end to topple his legitimate brother. The POV of this poem is Edmund speaking to fellow bastards before his rebellion.
they all see us now
the world’s armpit. the gods
don’t call us wrong. stand
up proud, tall, lift up
our true real names, for
they just use “bastards”