Celebration and honor are two touchstones of the poetic tradition. With National Poetry Month approaching in April, we’ll write a poem in honor of another poem and poet.
Say hello to the golden shovel.
The golden scoop is a contemporary poetic form that follows a series of rules invented by acclaimed poet Terrance Hayes in homage to Gwendolyn Brooks, the former poet and first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize. When Mr. Hayes composed his poem “The Golden Shovel,” originally published in his 2010 collection “Lighthead”, it was inspired by Brooks’ classic, and the name of its shape comes from the epigraph of her poem, “The Pool Players. / Seven at the golden shovel. “Mr. Hayes created his poetic form in honor of a poet whom he deeply respects, and also in honor of something he plays in many of his poems.
Poetry is very much about play. That’s the joy of writing a poem and being a poet. As Brooks himself once said, “Words can do wonderful things. They pound, purr. They can push, they can wave, whip, and whine. You can sing, sass, scorch. “
Poets always celebrate each other as all poems are really inspired by other poems. You’ll do the same thing: use what’s in front of you as inspiration to create your own golden shovel. You too are honoring Gwendolyn Brooks line by line.
What exactly is the golden shovel?
It is a poem that takes a line from another poem or text (often a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks, but not always) and uses each word on that line as the end of a line in the poem. For this poem, you will use a heading from the newspaper as a line.
In honor of this poetic form, be sure to focus your poem on the phrase “celebration” or “honor”. What are you celebrating in your life? What do you honor
That’s how it’s done:
Be picky. Search the paper for a headline with five or more words that appeals to you. You could cut out a few to give you options. Each word in the heading is the last word on a line in your poem, so the length of your composition will be determined by the heading you choose.
Investigate. Spread your headlines in front of you and investigate them. Which ones have the greatest potential? As you look at it, can you already imagine where these end words might lead you? Choose one.
Recognition. Be sure to write down the author of the article your headline is from and the date it was published. You need to give credit to this writer at the end of your poem. (The above poem is from an article by Jason Zinoman in the March 14 print edition of the New York Times.)
Layout. Cut out your words and place them on a piece of paper at the end of each line in the order they originally appeared, following the pattern in the poem above.
Write. You are ready to write or type your poem (you may want to do this on scratch-off paper). Each line must end with your ending word, but your actual sentence can move to the next line, although the last word of each line should feel like some kind of ending. For example, in the above poem, the first line ends with “pain,” which is the first word in the selected heading. See if you can include a simile, a metaphor, or maybe some pictures to evoke the five senses. Would you like your poem to “pound” or “purr” on the side? Then focus on sound and musicality. Have fun with it.
Ta-Da! Write in your poem (or print it out and put each of your ending words on the line). Congratulations, you wrote a golden scoop. If the form interests you, see “The Golden Shovel Anthology,” published by the University of Arkansas Press.
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