Mermaids

 Okay, Word Daddy is missing in action. He must be on another one of his cross-country road trips. I hope his motorcycle breaks down and leaves him stranded in Tucumcari. Sorry, I shouldn’t talk smack about my unreliable muse. I decided to hang out with the Golden Shovel Poems for a while longer. What can I do with a missing muse and so many great poets in the world? I’ve used William Blake, Robert Frost, W.B. Yeats, and Amy Lowell for inspiration. I decided to switch to another poet. I am fickle like that. Emily Dickinson is one of my favorites, so I plan to hang out with her. Most of her poetry was found after her death. The ten poems published during her lifetime were done anonymously. She hated the idea of selling her poetry and becoming rich. Therefore, this new Golden Shovel Poem will be titled Mermaids.

 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  Mermaids

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 William Butler Yeats.

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.

Now that I’ve finished using Yeat’s poems and moved on to Emily Dickinson, I look forward to playing with her short, lyrical poems. She wrote 1800 poems, so I will have a lot of material to experiment with. The beauty I admire in her poetry is the simplicity of her words. I like the way she broke the rules and wrote what she wanted. The poem I will use as the last word of every line is ,I Started Early─Took My Dog. I highlighted the words belonging to Dickinson. Most of her poems went without a title, but I called this one Mermaids.

Mermaids 

I stand on the shore, watching as the
Waves toss the meandering Mermaids
Around like colorful marbles in
Seafoam rolling restlessly in the
Surf before plunging to the Basement
Of the sea from which they Came
Then, they swim right out
Of the water and settle to
Have a lingering look
And silently wonder at
The change that came over 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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