If you’ve never
heard of the “Golden
Shovel” form of poetry, you’re not alone. It’s relatively new, created by
National Book Award winner Terrance Hayes
to honor Gwendolyn
Brooks (1917-2000) in her centenary year. Brooks garnered a number of
significant “firsts” in her life – the first African-American to win the
Pulitzer Prize and the first African-American to be Poetry Consultant (poet
laureate) to the Library of Congress.
The Golden
Shovel poetic form is usually based on a line or verse from Brooks’ poetry –
the last word of each line of a poem are the words taken from a line or verse
of a Brooks poem. A Golden Shovel poem can literally be read in two ways – the
standard way of reading a poem from left to right and reading the last word of
each line downward, to read the verse or line from Brooks. The poem doesn’t
have to be about a Brooks poem or even the subject she was writing about, but
it can be and often is. And so you can read a Golden Shovel poem as either
direct homage to Brooks and her poetry or as an acknowledgement to her ongoing
influence.
To continue
reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak
Poetry.
Photograph: poet Gwendolyn Brooks.
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