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 Small Crumbs of Resentment.
The rules for writing a Golden Shovel Poem and Small Crumbs of Resentment
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 Small Crumbs of Resentment will consist of the end of lines taken from Blake’s Auguries of Innocence.
Small Crumbs of Resentment I never understood why he Was the one who Could leave and shall Be the one to take the train And leave the little and the One frightened like a bucking horse Did you really mean to Start this wordy war Because you didn't dream I shall Take up the pen and never Give you a panoramic pass The traumatic and the Dramatic chill of the Polar Vortex that raised the Bar The loneliness and the Misery of the Beggar’s Leftovers thrown to the Dog Devoured and licked up & Passed on to the Widow’s Lazy, comfortable Cat A hunger that can never feed On the resentments caused by them Craving never satisfied & The memories of thou Over time wilt Like trees that grow From a small seed tall and fat
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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Powerful words. I like your enjambment and how you bring the words to life for your readers.
Thank you.