I wrote Tall Tales in the Hall while half‑dazed by the heatwave currently flattening London. It was all I could muster for David’s W3 Poetry Prompt #219, where Violet Lentz (Jodi), our brilliant Poet‑of‑the‑Week, challenges us to write a Golden Shovel.
A Golden Shovel takes a line from an existing poem and uses each word, in order, as the final word of each new line. I chose Dickinson’s line ‘Tell all the truth but tell it slant’ as the quoted spine: Tell / all / the / truth / but / tell / it / slant.
I blame the 35‑degree delirium entirely for how my poem turned out. I hope you enjoy it.
Tall Tales in the Hall
As far as I can tell,
I was born extremely tall—all
in a hurry in the hall. The
king was there to tell the truth
Oh yes, he was. I never lie, but
so was William Tell
together they sang a Gregorian chant—I remember it
well, as I recant—the king wore his crown, slipping, sloping, at a slant
—Lesley Scoble, July 2026
Audio — Tall Tales in the Hall
Acknowledgements
My thanks to Violet / Jodi for her wondrous Golden Shovel prompt.
My thanks, as always, to David for his constant inspiration and encouragement.
Thanks to Emily Dickinson for the quoted line ‘Tell / all / the / truth / but / tell / it / slant’.
And my thanks, of course, to you, the reader, for being here.
LesleyScoble.com 
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