My hero of Golden Shovel writing is Stacey Joy of Los Angeles, California. She’s an LA Teacher of the Year, and I’m proud to call her a writing circle friend. Stacey is a true inspiration, and we write together three days a month as part of the Ethicalela Open Write hosted by Sarah Donovan. To write a Golden Shovel, take a sentence, phrase, or even a book title and write it vertically. These can be the words that start each line or that finish each line. And if you really want a brain workout, try a double or triple shovel by writing three sets of words vertically and spreading them out to try to make them fit.
I’m not ambitious enough to try a double or triple shovel today, but here is a Golden Shovel using the lines of my current book title my book club will read in January, Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson, as the starting lines in a poem. As part of the Stafford Challenge with Brian Rohr this year, I’m writing a poem every day using different forms.
Vertigo
Not just dizziness and spinning, but
Quite a bit more ~ nausea, stumbling
Dead to the world today
Yet twice as alive tomorrow
Click Here to go to a video on writing a Golden Shovel poem.
Common Threads 