Warmth to Keep

It’s true, I decided to switch things up a bit in August. I will continue to write Golden Shovel but move on to Robert Frost. Frost dropped out of college twice but earned more than 40 honorary degrees. That is the smart way to go to college, but he had to win four Pulitzer Prizes for poetry to accomplish the task. He read a poem at JFK’s presidential inauguration. I switched gears in August. Robert Frost is my new poet guy because he has a way with words. Therefore, this new poem will be titled Warmth to Keep.

Terrance Hayes invented the Golden Shovel style of poetry.  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. In the month of July, I focused on  William Blake’s poems. Blake and I are breaking up.

The rules for writing a Golden Shovel Poem and  Warmth to Keep

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 currently I will use poems by Robert Frost.

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 use poems written by Robert Frost. This small poem I call Warmth to Keep. It will consist of the end of lines taken from Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.  

Warmth to Keep 

It’s not easy to ignore the
Towering trees in the woods
At the edge of the park are
So very lonely and lovely
They sway in the dark
With colorful foliage and
Leaves piled on the ground deep

I love the autumn of the year but
Winter is near at hand and I
Am warm in my house and have
Frequent faithful promises
The weather has no power to
Destroy those with warmth to keep

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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