Pushcart Prize-winning poet Terrance Hayes has published seven books of poetry, poems that examine culture, race, music, and masculinity. Hayes plays with formal constraints in his poetry and created the Golden Shovel poetic form to pay homage to admired poets. To write a Golden Shovel, take one word from each line of a pre-existing poem – these words will serve as the final word of each line of your own poem.
Check out Hayes’ Golden Shovel after Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool” here and try writing a Golden Shovel of your own.