HOMAGE: an offering of golden shovel poems, by Deborah LeFalle

Publication Date: May 15, 2023

Paperback, 82 pages

ISBN: 978-1-956782-38-7

$25.00 retail, $18.50 from publisher

Since the creation of the golden shovel poetic form by Terrance Hayes, it has been associated with Black poetry, and specifically homage to Black poets. This new collection by Deborah LeFalle declares this intention in her title, and the poets she has chosen to honor in her “offering of golden shovel poems” constitute a pantheon of 20th century Black authors, including Gwendolyn Brooks of course (whose poetry first inspired Hayes to create the form), Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Bob Kaufman, and many others, as well as writers like James Baldwin not always thought of as poets. In keeping with Claudia Rankine’s prescription that a golden shovel should be “in conversation with” the poem and poet that inspired it, LeFalle’s original poems here establish a dialogue with her predecessors, and treat the same themes describing Black experience and the still much unfinished work of achieving social justice and equality. As such they function not only as fully-realized poems of their own, but more importantly in looking back to the examples of Black literary activists, and paying tribute to their words and works, she calls upon readers to continue the struggle: “Time to stop sitting; time to stand up and go.”

On the Golden Shovel form:

“Golden Shovel poetry to me is a uniquely American invention… sort of like jazz. While it was created by a Black poet and first began circulating in African American circles, it quickly started spreading like wildfire throughout literary communities in general. Now it is practiced all over the country and beyond, especially in colleges, schools and workshop settings. I actually was first introduced to the form in a workshop of about 20 people where I was the only African American in attendance. And I have written other golden shovel poems (outside of Homage) inspired by poets not of African American descent.”

—Deborah LeFalle

Praise for Deborah LeFalle & HOMAGE

Using the golden shovel poetic form, LeFalle immerses herself into the minds of poets such as Anne Spencer, Bob Kaufman, and Lucille Clifton. Her poems arrive where the poets’ narratives left off, highlight parallelisms between historical and contemporary society, and enlighten readers on the continuous struggle for social justice in America––while celebrating reverence for life in all of its stages and forms, including the spiritual. There is elegance in LeFalle’s approach to expressing the range of emotions one endures while navigating the complexities of life. She playfully employs vernacular and masterfully articulates mood to invite readers into her psyche. HOMAGE is an exquisite collection of poems that provokes thought and challenges us to contemplate whether life has changed or remained the same over the last century.

—Adrienne Wartts, Poet/Writer/Photographer

The concept of HOMAGE could easily be dismissed as a kind of high-end Wordle type game. Creating poems using each word of already existing poems as end-words for new poems sounds like an entry to be placed next to a New York Times Sunday morning crossword puzzle; until you read them. Infusing old thoughts with new thoughts, and rolling those into a prescribed word format is more than a challenge. It is a birthing process that brings out the best in all of us – the writer, the reader, the universe. What LeFalle does is gift us with beautiful thoughts wrapped up in a blanket of beautiful words. How can you do better than that?

—Abigail McGrath, Founder & Director of Renaissance House Residency Program

About the Author

Deborah LeFalle is a former college educator who started writing in her retirement. In addition to writing she enjoys engaging in the arts, digging into her family’s past, and spending time outdoors communing with nature. She writes both prose and poetry, but it is the latter she is drawn to most, with inspiration for her poems often stemming from personal experiences. Her work has appeared in various journals, magazines and anthologies, and she has authored two chapbooks and one children’s book: Worthy (2017), Little Suites (2019) and Bitty Brown Babe (2019). She lives a simple, gratitude-filled life in California’s Bay Area.