Much of the world composed of the making that I
sonnet no. xxvii
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A “golden shovel” poem is the composite of two poems, the catalyst and the riff. Each word of the catalyst poem appears as the last word of each line, read vertically. The riff poem reaches out horizontally from the left of the catalyst. The challenge of the golden shovel is how the riff meets the catalyst, in language and theme.
The golden shovel was created by Terrance Hayes in his poem, “The Golden Shovel”, which riffed off of the great Gwendolyn Brooks, “We Real Cool”.
The catalyst for this golden shovel is Monochord #99 by Yannis Ritsos, translated from the Greek by Paul Merchant:
“I brought this bench from the wood. I sit down. I write about trees.”
The monochord was created by Yannis Ritsos while under house arrest on the island of Samos. The monochord is a language-vision of an instrument invented by Pythagoras (also a resident of Samos), a single-stringed lyre, used to measure sound. I’m not sure how Ritsos would feel about taking his single sound and adding so much to it, but I do like how his monochords are sometimes fourteen words, and therefore can be properly riffed with a sonnet.
This is the second golden shovel poem I’ve attempted with Ritsos. The first one you can read here:
The other inspiration for this poem has been October evenings reading Charles Wright.
Photo by Nikolai Lapshin from Pexels