Best Sentinels Poems

Sunflowers,
cheddar-cheese petals
surrounding seedy-brown-mustard centers,
stand guard over hot summer pavement
like mighty oaks.
Laughing children
run in and out the yellow forest,
slaying dragons,
rescuing damsels in distress,
then pretending to be astronauts
sailing across space 
to a planet inhabited
by tall, green stalk-like aliens
with golden helmets.
Did van Gogh imagine such things
as he painted...

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on rocky coastlines
stand historic lighthouses
beacons of safety

protectors of ships
their lights shine far out to sea
upon granite shores

keeping watch each night
sentinels stand on duty
making safe the way
...

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When lyrics and music are combined they take on a whole new life.
When chlorine and sodium assimilate they make salt.
Separately they are limited, combined they are significant.
Together we can accomplish much, divided we dither. 

 Salty Sentinels
By James E. Tate

Sodium ions stable, assembled on the...

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Piney woods, perfume the forests; sweet scents waft upon the air.

Great oaks share their strength; Popular poplars whisper lost secrets.

In the great kingdom of trees, generosity is paramount.

...

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On a lowland moor, waved a sea of green
Pastoral gardens, peaceful and serene
Ocher blossoms, kissed by the sun
were posing for a painting I 'd begun

In this placid glen, nature's beauty reigned
Captured with brush before sunlight waned
Cornwall's grey sentinels rose to the sky
Granite cliffs worthy for...

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The Satanic Sentinels stand surreal
As the facultative feces break the coded seal
Thus you bow before the neglected night
With futile forgiveness and loss of light

Tactically trapped by the watchful wolves
Dancing in the darkness with hideous hooves
The skies seduced by a vulturous view
Demonic disturbance in a bacterial...

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I sat upon a weathered rock

And looked across the fells,

Emerging from the morning cloud

Like ghostly sentinels.

The rising sun revealing all

In perfect clarity,

A wonderland of serried peaks

Appeared in front of me....

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All embracing swirling cloud

Below a leaden sky.

A fleeting glimpse of hidden fells,

Shadows, reaching high.

Towering grey sentinels,

Guardians of the land.

In the cloud, and glowering gloom

Unerringly they stand.

Oh but when revealed to us

Beneath a cobalt sky,

Ne'er has such beauty fell

Before a mortal eye....

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Why are shining stars spread across the sky
like twinkling torches tethered to the night?
And why are some seemingly so close by, 
like dangling diamonds sparkling with light? 

Believers say stars took form through God's will,
but scientists believe in the big bang. 
Although dubiously skeptical, I...

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two sentinels in winter
watch the frozen wheat field
spy the evil murderer
dragging his innocent victim
Nebraska ground is frozen
two curious crows watch
studying the two-legged miscreant
he shouts his aggravation to the wind
innocent victim is nonmoving
left at the foot of the fence post
two sentinels feel relief
when evil scoundrel leaves...

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lemon tree mountain
magical scenario
peeking between trees

hidden animals
feeling autumns sweet coolness
slow temperatures

october birch trees
quintessential sentinels
guarding the hidden...

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sentinels above
celestial quark enigma
stars roaming the night



AP: 3rd place 2020

Posted on October 14, 2020...

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Firewalls stand silent,
Guarding data in the dark—
Shadows try, but fail....

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Releasing my anguish is not that easy 
standing two hours away from day break 
I feel far removed from sleep; 
The lamp posts on the island are sentinels of sorrow     
and just like me they are afraid to blink ;
I get...

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The ancient jagged rocks stand, like black sentinels along the waterside,
Protecting the land from the continuous raging tide.

They are perpetually black, either slicked with water or as a sharp silhouette against a blue crystal sky.
They dominate everything and are especially feared by every mariner that...

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