It’s time again for some Sunday Verse! Are you feeling poetic?

For today’s prompt, we’re going to do something called a Golden Shovel poem. This set of poetic rules was invented by the poet Terrence Hayes, and inspired by Gwendolyn Brooks. The original golden shovel is The Golden Shovel, after We Real Cool. 

The Rules of the Golden Shovel

• Pick a poem that inspires you
• Burrow a line, or lines, depending on how long you want your poem to be. The number of words you take will be the number of lines in your poem.
• Now write a poem, and the last word of every line, when read vertically, is the line you borrowed. Your poem and the poem you borrow from do not have to be about the same thing.
• Keep those burrowed words in order! 
• Remember to give credit for the lines you borrowed, i.e. after Gwendolyn Brooks.

The Golden Shovel (excerpt)

“When I am so small Da’s sock covers my arm, we
cruise at twilight until we find the place the real

men lean, bloodshot and translucent with cool.
His smile is a gold-plated incantation as we

drift by women on bar stools, with nothing left
in them but approachlessness. This is a school”

Terrence Hayes

We Real Cool (excerpt)

"We real cool. We
Left school. We"

Gwendolyn Brooks