Woman’s Danger

Okay, I decided to hang with the Golden Shovel Poems longer. I can’t help myself. It’s not my fault there are so many great poets in the world. I’ve used William Blake and Robert Frost for inspiration. It’s time for me to take advantage of one of the women poetresses. When I read Jo Jo Moyes’ The Giver of Stars, I was reminded of Amy Lowell. I read her work in the past and decided to explore her poetry for a while. Therefore, this new poem will be titled Woman’s Danger.

 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. Now, I am having fun writing Golden Shovel Poetry.

The rules for writing a Golden Shovel Poem and Woman’s Danger

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. Currently, I will use poems by Amy Lowell.

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.

Here are a few quick facts about Amy Lowell. She was the leading poet in the Imaginist School. This woman never attended college and considered herself a social outcast when she was young. She was an avid reader and book collector. Also, she publicly smoked cigars, which was outrageous for a woman then. Pieces of the poem The Blue Scarf by Amy Lowell will appear at the end of each line of this poem. I will title Woman’s Danger .

Woman’s Danger 

Some welcomes are so warm
You can’t run away from
The lie behind the smile with a
Sensitive instinct of a woman’s
Heart, even words so soft
And tender pat on her shoulders
Warns her of impending danger and
Still, she lingers against my
Sound advice with cold, desperate fingers
Even when she knows she should move on
And leave with a plan, get on with it
Beyond all the tender caressing.

I can’t imagine where
The path she took is
Worn down to dirt as if she 
Lost her way and got swallowed in the
Dark mist, a trap for a lone woman
There is danger for those who
Linger too long and wore
The road thin by traveling it
With the danger and the
Fear, leaving her scent
Behind for the hunter of
To discover and remember her
The brave female who lingers
Close to the truth and
Cares for the fire that drugs
I am satisfied it wasn’t me

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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