Song of the Brook

Golden Shovel Poetry is a style of verse created by Terrance Hayes. This form of found poetry allows the writer to take a favorite poem and use it to make something original. I experimented with found poetry last year when I wrote Blank Verse poems. Since I have a small booklet of William Blake poems on my shelf that I’ve planned to reread, I decided to start the month of July playing with the words written by this Romantic Era poet. Blake didn’t receive much recognition in his life. Some people thought he was insane. I will call this first poem Song of the Brook.

The rules for writing a Golden Shovel Poem and Song of the Brook

While researching this style of poetry created by Terrance Hayes, there seem to be four simple rules. You can use as many lines of the poem as you want, and the poem will end with you being your creation. I find this idea interesting. Written below are the three simple rules.

1). Choose a poem that you like. I will use poems by William Blake in my July poetic adventure.

2)Use each word in the line or lines as the end word in your poem. Make sure they stay in order.

3) Construct an entire poem around them. The meaning doesn’t have to be the same.

4) Give the original poet credit who wrote the line or lines you used.

In this poetic adventure, I will stick to using poems written by William Blake. This small poem I call Twisted Love will call  Song of the Brook. The word end words of each line were from Blake’s The Clod and the Pebble.

Song of the Brook

Why do we view the world so
Soundless with songs never sung
When we long to hear a
Music played so little
By the clumsy clod
 That is made of
A muddy ball of clay

He walked the path less trodden
Green grass covered with
Dew, morning mist and the
Dung left behind by cattle’s
Heavy unshod feet

I would have ignored him but
The song he played was a
Smooth, glistening Pebble
The calling forth of
Memories beside the
Bubbling, babbling brook

When we willfully warbled
A simple, solemn song out
Creeping out of these
Throats in merry meters 
With harmless hopes the day might meet.

Who is Molly Shea?

Molly Shea is an accomplished fictional short story writer from Indiana who writes short stories and novels about a fictional town called Tecumseh.  To read more of her short stories and adventures, click here.

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