Poetry Friday round-up is with Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge
I am participating in a book study called “A Course in Miracles.” It is quite an amazing journey of meditations that lead to self-awareness and ultimately to inner peace. Each day there is a new mantra. One of the mantras for this week was “God is the love in which I forgive myself.” I was drawn to creating a golden shovel poem and used Canva.com to design the graphic.
In my classroom, we have been using the golden shovel form to respond to quotes. Invented by Nikki Grimes, a golden shovel form begins with writing the words of the quote down the right hand margin of the page. Then you write a poem around the words, incorporating the quote into the poem. On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day I wrote one together with Jayden around this quote, “The time is always right to do what is right.”
When someone knows the
right thing but time
goes too fast, and is
never around long enough, always
do what’s right
even when it’s hard to.
No matter what you do
Listen to what
your heart
knows is
right.
The golden shovel form is a way to honor the words of another while making them your own. Next time you read an inspiring quote, try to write a poem around it.
Reflections on the Teche 