I am participating in a Nadia Colburn “Align Your Story” workshop, and I am up to Module 4 of 8. Module 4 teaches how to write about Joy – what a wonderful topic to explore. Nadia included Mary Oliver’s poem Morning Poem (see below) along with many other writings that expressed joy. Plus, there were writing prompts.
Mary Oliver: Morning Poem
Every morning
the world
is created.
Under the orange
sticks of the sun
the heaped
ashes of the night
turn into leaves again
and fasten themselves to the high branches–
and the ponds appear
like black cloth
on which are painted islands
of summer lilies.
If it is your nature
to be happy
you will swim away along the soft trails
for hours, your imagination
alighting everywhere.
And if your spirit
carries within it
the thorn
that is heavier than lead–
if it’s all you can do
to keep on trudging–
there is still
somewhere deep within you
a beast shouting that the earth
is exactly what it wanted–
each pond with its blazing lilies
is a prayer heard and answered
lavishly,
every morning,
whether or not
you have ever dared to be happy,
whether or not
you have ever dared to pray.
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But I wasn’t feeling the prompts. I was feeling inspired to write a Golden Shovel poem.
I used the line highlighted above as a jumping-off point for my Golden Shovel: each pond with its blazing lilies / is a prayer heard and answered / lavishly
It’s a rough draft, but I know if I keep massaging it, the theme will rise to the surface. This is my fifth Golden Shovel. I realized while I was writing this one that I loved this form because it makes me feel like I’m working to solve a puzzle.
For those who would like to know more about Golden Shovel here’s some information I found:
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 will be six lines long. If you pull a stanza with 24 words, your poem will be 24 lines long, and so on.
I’ll share one of my first Golden Shovels, which was selected for publication the upcoming issue of the Journal of New Jersey Poets:
JOY: A Golden Shovel
JOY / does not want to be / written. It does
not need me.
Seema Reza’s “JOY”
Soft eyes worship warm joy
it slackens a frozen frown, that’s what it does
A tree smile blossoms, how could it not
foiling complacency, striving to want
creation bursts forth—able to
end sheltering, now it’s time to be
Bring forth life, or so it’s written
rejuvenation abounds, there’s no hiding from it
Joy thaws rigid restrictions, that’s what it does
fauna flaunts fanciful buds, how can they not
after winter’s weariness, springtide will need
joyful magic, it finds me, but doesn’t need me
#############################
If you read each word at the end of the line (above), you are reading the line from the Seema Reza “JOY” poem highlighted in the epigraph under the title. Isn’t that fun!
Here is Seema Reza’s “JOY” poem as written:
JOY
by Seema Reza
does not want to be
written. It does not need me.
It is the orange light of knowing
each pretty moment is only
almost. Once, a man grabbed my arm
in a gesture of love & I shook for an hour
in the aftershock.
#########################
I highlighted the line I used to create the Golden Shovel.
Writing Prompt: Pick a favorite poem and then pick a line from that poem to create a Golden Shovel. Please share your creation.
Words to Play With: warm, frozen, tree, blossoms, creation, life
Laura Daniels, Writer 
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