Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo prompt: “I’d like to challenge you to write a variation of an acrostic poem. But rather than spelling out a word with the first letters of each line, I’d like you to write a poem that reproduces a phrase with the first words of each line. Perhaps you could write a poem in which the first words of each line, read together, reproduce a treasured line of poetry? You could even try using a newspaper headline or something from a magazine article.” Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day suggestion: “For today's prompt, take the phrase '(blank) in the (blank),' replace the blanks with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles might include: 'Poem in the Pocket,' 'Skin in the Game,' 'Money in the Pot,' and/or 'A Devastatingly Good-Looking Person in the Mirror.'” Maureen's prompt today is akin to the golden shovel form. The typical golden shovel quotes a text by placing each word of that earlier text at the ends of the lines in the golden shovel poem. This form was invented by Terrance Hayes, named after the epigraph of Gwendolyn Brooks's poem "We Real Cool"; in fact Hayes's first two golden shovels were based on that iconic Brooks poem. In Maureen's prompt, the quoted words appear at the beginning of the lines rather than the end, which has been called a reverse golden shovel. My poem today merges the two prompts and also works with Brooks's "We Real Cool" in homage to both Brooks and Hayes.
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4 comments:
Yeah, this works well too. I love that original poem, and how your memories seem to expand the theme. Well-done.
I loved how you put both the prompt and the Golden Shovel form (one of my favorites) together.. wonderful!
Thanks, Bruce. I originally was going to write the poem in the voices of the seven boys at the Golden Shovel but it was pretty hard to carry off. I might still try to do it later, but maybe in a regular golden shovel, not the reverse.
Lady in Read ... thanks. Maureen didn't name the form as such. Maybe because reverse golden shovels have been done in two ways: (1) as Maureen described it, and (2) where the quoted text (appearing at the ends of the lines) starts at the bottom and goes up to the top. I would call that an "upside-down golden shovel"!
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