The golden shovel is a poetic form created by Terrance Hayes and inspired by Gwendolyn Brooks.

shovel

shovel” flickr photo by tamaki shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) license

Here are the rules for the Golden Shovel:

  • Take a line (or lines) from a poem you admire.
  • Use each word in the line (or lines) as an end word in your poem.
  • Keep the end words in order.
  • Give credit to the poet who originally wrote the line (or lines).
  • The new poem does not have to be about the same subject as the poem that offers the end words.
  • If you pull a line with six words, your poem would be six lines long. If you pull a stanza with 24 words, your poem would be 24 lines long. And so on.

Post your response to @[email protected] and be sure to include the hashtag #tdc3887

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