G - Golden Shovel

-

 G - Golden Shovel 

A golden shovel is an invented form, created by Terrance Hayes.  It is written by taking a line or lines from an existing poem and using each word as end words in your poem.  Keep the words in order, and make sure to give credit. 


"Here I am, an old man in a dry month,"

the opening line of T.S. Eliot's Gerontion.  The title is Greek for 

"little old man."  I would have liked to have added "year by year" as 

a last line, but that wasn't in the poem.


I am here.

There is nowhere else I

care to go, I am

a used up man, an

ancient, hoary, old

man.

I sit in

my dingy bedsit day after night, a

sorry sad man, withered and dry.

Here, day by day, week by week, month by month.


©2024 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved 

Comments

  1. Idea-istApril 8, 2024 at 3:53 PM

    oh that's interesting! i didn't know that. that's got to be hard work making sure each line ends with the correct word. Idea-ist@GetLostInLit

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LisaApril 9, 2024 at 11:06 AM

      It's why I picked a short line! I also tried out other poems, but couldn't make them work as well. For some reason I was on a T. S. Eliot kick when I wrote a lot of the A to Z letters.

      Delete
  2. CherylApril 9, 2024 at 9:40 AM

    You are so good at doing all these, Lisa.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LisaApril 9, 2024 at 11:05 AM

      Thank you. Remember though, I started with a great line by someone else!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Morrigan

-
Image
 Weekly Scribblings #45: https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/2020/11/weekly-scribblings-45-artistic.html A picture prompt this week, prose or poetry inspired by one or more of three paintings.  I chose two,  'Beautiful, YOU are' by Magic Love Crow, and 'Carnival Dreams' by Shelle Kennedy. 'Carnival Dreams' by Shelle Kennedy      Beautiful, you are,      though your thoughts are dark,      and bitter.      A macabre carnival of emotion      battles in you.        The heart you wear      belies the fury      of the one that beats.        Your face tells.      Tells of suffering,      loneliness,      too much despair      in one so young.      One still hoping.      Yet not daring to hope.   Hope!   The red balloon you cling to. Hope! Straining skyward.       'Beautiful, YOU are' by Magic Love Crow Look outside the gates. Outside your grim carnival and watch the crows at sunset fly in
Read more

Untitled Golden Shovel

-
Image
 Writers' Pantry #52  https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/2021/01/writers-pantry-52-years-beginning.html I've been playing with some new, to me, poetry forms.  April is the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, and my plans are A-Z of poetry forms.  I like to get a head start, especially since I also participate on my other blog.   This is a Golden Shovel. It was created by Terrance Hayes, an award-winning poet and professor in New York.  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/terrance-hayes The "rules" are: take lines, or one line, from an existing poem take each word and use it, in order, as an end word in your new poem give credit My poem uses the words from the last line of Edna St. Vincent Millay's Time Does Not Bring Relief (Sonnet II), "and so stand stricken so remembering him."             I had told him “yes” already, and it’s too late to change that now, so I let my words stand though I am stricken at the thought.   I am so cr
Read more

Crow and Moon - Five Very Brief Poems

-
Image
Writers' Pantry #72   photo prompt: The Sunday Muse #162     Crow, or idea of Crow. Moon's interpretation. Crow admires. Crow-in-moon admires back. a moon a crow my soul is filled   Crow and Moon meet in reflection, their own counsel to keep.  Crow, speak to me, tell me secrets of the moon. ©2021 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved
Read more