“Frequently the wood are pink —”
Emily Dickinson
once before, at night, when frequently
we kissed and serpently embraced the
sea, the sullen waves, the wild wild wood
we knew the taste of soil, we were aware
within our veins, how sunsets blush in pink,
but now … we’re sickly lost in lust for gold —
Today I host the dVerse Open Link with an optional prompt to get inspired by the poem by Emily Dickinson (you may also use the image created by AI from that line), you may of course link any poem that you like.
I decided to write a golden shovel based on the first line.
We will have a live event this Saturday at 10 AM EST that you can attend if you like to read your linked up poem or any other poem.
January 18, 2024
Björn Rudbergs writings 
This was so beautiful…I blushed.
Thank you… I hope you will link up to Open Link when we open
I wish I had a place to write it. I don’t have a blog anymore but I do love reading your words. Still.
I noticed you had stopped your blog… I wanted to comment on yours.
Your words speak to me of our connection with nature that can be lost when we choose to seek after dreams of money and things. Connecting with the life of nature is priceless.🌳
It is often worth much more than that extra little money you are seeking.
A most exquisite golden shovel poem, Bjorn! Wow! I especially love this part; “we knew the taste of soil, we were aware within our veins, how sunsets blush in pink.” 💝💝
I liked doing a shovel
A gorgeous reminder of what we lose when “we’re sickly lost in lust for gold.”
We do lose it, and alas many of us do it even if we know better.
I’m pleased to see someone else have a go at a golden shovel. I’m not a world authority, but I don’t think you’re supposed to add extra lines, or change the words of the original line. Maybe this is a golden spade, or a shovel plus?
I did a few a few years ago when it was a prompt… I don’t view it as I added an extra line since I treated the m-dash as a word … but that might be my own personal poetic license.
If a poet can’t use poetic licence, who can? Maybe dverse could bring it out again as a prompt? It’s a very creative form.
I thought of doing a golden shovel prompt, since I’ve been writing a lot of them, but I thought maybe we’ve done them a few times at dVerse.
I’ve never seen one, so it must have been a while ago. It’s difficult to suggest a line or a poem as a prompt though, as so much depends on choosing a line that has particular appeal
Yes, that’s true. I think maybe a prompt could give a couple poems to choose from, and then also give poets the choice of picking their own.
That would work. I’ll expect one soon then 🙂
Awesome.
👌
Really like how you played out the lines and the form, but I am enchanted by the last line, because to me it reads like an Autumn lovers poem to spring.
That is an interesting interpretation… the form took me there, and it made sense to me to use a shovel
I like imaging a serpently embrace and can’t decide if I like the color blush pink or gold best.
The gold can both be the color gold, or the material metal of greed.
A delight for the senses that pulled me in from the first line! A wonderful use of the Dickinson prompt!
I found it a good way to do using the shovel form to utilize the poem.
Björn, I like how you convey the shift from the serenity of nature to the unsettling allure of gold.
~David
Indeed, greed for gold is a dangerous allure.
I like the alliterative title, Björn, which sounds suggestively erotic! ’Serpently embraced the sea’ is an interesting phrase, sibilant and hinting at the Garden of Eden. I like ‘sullen waves’.
Indeed… if it only was… lust for gold is something different.
love what you dug with this shovel Bjorn- ‘serpently embraced’ ❤
I had to google and see if serpently really existed and it really does.
I’m not sure that I am lost to lust of gold but age means that such amorousness is only in the memory – stirred ably by your poem…
I think the amourness is also for nature which I hope we can keep to old age.
Golden shovels are so much fun.
I especially liked “serpently embraced”–such a great image!
Fabulous imagery! I like the flow of the golden shovel.
Stunning in every conceivable way, Bjorn.
Incredible use of the prompt. An important message beautifully shared. I read it three times out loud. Delicious.
Bjorn, behind on my reading, so hearing you read this today was fresh. Looking at it now makes it all the better. Really like the goblet words, full of meaning, and that you turned Emily’s line into a shovel poem.
It was so good to hear you read this today.
Much♡love
I appreciate this well done shovel poem. You remind me to try it if ever I get stuck by a prompt (which I often am).
Thank you for reading this and for hosting yesterday. What a gathering!
Yes.. a lovely poem that works even without the last line!
Down here we have the story of Lasseter who famously had gold fever to the point he risked his life in the wilderness and died (1929, 1930) I loved this, there’s much conveyed.