The Ideals of Captain America
Sponsored by: Robert James Liguori
Contest Judged: 11/16/2025 9:43:00 AM
( 3rd Place )
Written: October 22, 2025
Courage is waking when the night won’t end…
walking into the day on tired feet.
It is the quiet choice to help someone
even when your own heart feels heavy.
It is speaking what is right
even if your voice trembles.
It is staying when everyone else leaves
holding hope in small, stubborn ways.
Courage wears no crown of glory.
It bleeds in the dirt beside the fallen,
it lifts the shield even when the arm grows weak,
it fights not for victory
but because it must.
Courage is not the hero in a story,
it is the hand you reach out to another,
the deep breath you draw,
the step you force yourself to take,
even when fear feels louder than hope.
It is the soft voice inside that says;
"one more step"
the stubborn heartbeat that refuses to yield -
the quiet rise after every fall,
even when no one is there to see you stand.
My Inner voice told me to respect
Universal Moral Values always
at each step of journey, precise perfect.
Truth will guide my path in glory and glaze.
This principle was blessed by my Dad
and has been stored in the core of my heart
That’s the firm pivot on which I can stand
and proceed at ease from the very start.
My inner voice told be to act right,
always behaving courageous.
Aiming justice, I am ready to fight.
Not religious but righteous.
I don't pray to rescue me from crisis
but ask for inherent strength to confront.
In barren desert I must find oasis.
Not to mourn for past , but to look at front.
My Inner voice told me to lend hand
to the needy and sufferers at best,
also to send juniors this errand,
to be followed by generation : Next.
Johari window;
no one can see through this pane,
where I make my decisions.
my thoughts ala carte,
and not all desirable,
sussed out in my universe;
perplexing to me.
sift through so many pages -
childhood habits and missteps.
when faith came my way,
how divine the candlelight,
the Spirit lighting my path.
electrifying,
sword of positivity
discerning my every word.
don’t always listen
to the reproof; button up.
shame’s not a place to live. look
up to God’s grace; bow
down in that out of sight place;
forward march into glory.
sometimes there are storms:
depression, obsessive fraughts.
I pray through it; God’s faithful.
lingering in brain,
too long, could drive me cuckoo;
get in, get out, get moving.
inner voice, I must control.
here we are encased in body-mind
feeling incomplete, we wish to expand
we sense there is more to us than this
but who we are we do not understand
thought and senses are the tools we use
yet form decays and one day we will die
cognition operates in a limited spectrum
our heart’s secret desire is to wingless fly
trapped in the open we are yet free within
in time stretched silence when ego recedes
from a centreless fulcrum love calls to us
cajoling us to gentle our words and deeds
softening attention, our eye nonjudgmental
we are then with our inner voice connected
the false falls away, light of Self is revealed
soul stands erect, stooped stance corrected
A voiceless whisper always speaks to me,
At times too faint for thought to comprehend,
Yet it speaks—sometimes even loud and clear—
To warn of danger or to guide to blessings.
Most times, its voice grows clearer when ignored,
But when I heed its prompt, it comes true,
It then fades~
like a whisper lost in the wind,
and like a dream slipped from grasp.
But whenever I long for its guiding light,
That's when its feet grow cold and heavy—
like a feather on a fish...
an imaginary tail a snail would love to wag.
But from where comes this inner voice?
That, like true prophets, dares to predict.
Is it God speaking in me—or something else?
If wishes were horses, I’d rather choose this inner voice—
For my outer voice makes only noise,
While this my inner voice flows like a river of truth,
of wisdom and understanding—
that sometimes may dry up,
but it never vanishes...
and it beams with a cadence that illumines my future.
There was a D.J. at a club where I
would go some weekend nights and dance till late.
Not gorgeous, but an entertaining guy,
he called me up and asked me on a date.
It took me by surprise. I thought why not?
Something inside me did not feel right though,
My inner voice told me perhaps I ought
to just stay home. Doubt grew. I dared not go.
A few days later, on the news I heard
that guy who’d called me was the suspect in
a murder that had recently occurred.
To think that with that man I could have been
and stabbed to death like his victim was!
Heed your inner voice if it gives you pause.
Be a still shadow when the void is
smeared
onto concrete walls.
The void—
a deafening drone—
devours shadows that dare speak.
It closes in, fast—
in my head it whispers:
Join us. You are
hollowed enough
to blend in without fault.
I sit still—
because I was told:
If I move—If I shiver—
I become the smeared void.
I made a mistake was young and stupid
I had no guidance as a young adult
Found myself pregnant thanks to Cupid
felt strangely this woman was in a cult
She invited me to bible study
When I got there I felt unsure
It was in a private home
And everyone seemed overly invested
They wanted to pray over me
They locked arms making a circle
It felt weird but I couldn’t leave
Because the lady was my ride
I was in the center of the circle
They wanted to touch my belly
My feeling was that this could be bad
I started to feel strange
My inner voice told me to go
But trapped by lack of transportation
I decided to go with the flow
Trust that God would keep me safe
When I got home I called my grandmother
Explained the prayer circle and feeling trapped
She said that it sounded like a cult
Urged me to never go back
My inner voice told me
Something was wrong
But I just couldn’t leave
But God kept me all along
For the sake of my baby
My inner voice, is a two-faced bard,
That takes all credit when a win is starred.
But slinks away and hides when the outcome,
Doesn't match what it said, what's to become.
Can I read its doubt in the quiver of its sage?
Or in the mumbled, jumble of its feeble grab to engage?
It can be so assertive when it has brace of winners in the bag.
Who am I, to shun the chance to cheer a winner's brag?
Your inner voice learned to mimic all your plays,
It's like just a ventriloquist in so many ways,
With you pulling the strings for its 'Simon Says' and 'Nays'.
'Tis the script behind the curtain that the prompt obeys.
Simon Says: "Jump",
Simon Says: "Sit",
"Stand" - Ah Hah!
Gotya! There!
My Inner voice told me to respect
Universal Moral Values always
at each step of journey, precise perfect.
Truth will guide my path in glory and glaze.
This principle was blessed by my Dad
and has been stored in the core of my heart
That’s the firm pivot on which I can stand
and proceed at ease from the very start.
My inner voice told be to act right,
always behaving courageous.
Aiming justice, I am ready to fight.
Not religious but righteous.
I don't pray to rescue me from crisis
but ask for inherent strength to confront.
In borren desert I must find oasis.
Not to mourn for past , but to look at front.
At the end of the meal we shared,
my participle principles split my jeans,
when you called me to split the bill!
What about the banana-split you had for dessert?
You split-up spilled friend?
Or the soggy split pea soup you
asked me to boldly forgo,
for the aperitif?
The tiff began and ended
with the present and past-principles
of split personalities,
listening to their inner voices
with split-end infinitives.
Look inside, there's a choice.
Can you hear that soft and gentle, peaceful, singing
inner voice?
So completely,
it's bringing fulfillment, ringing
sweetly.
It's you -
a sprout springing
true.
Look inside, there's a choice,
it's bringing fulfillment, ringing,
true.
When you hear an inner voice
Telling you there is no choice
You really need to do what's right
To help turn someones darkened night
To a brighter sunny day
How can you just walk away
When help is needed, don't be blind
Let your inner kindness shine
Reach out a hand or crying shoulder
Don't let someones world turn colder
Keep it warm and sunny bright
One small friendly gesture might
Make someones day or even year
Let's all take some time to care
Sending waves of happiness
Through a world that's needing this
Wave by wave, smile by smile
Every inch of every mile
Of each footstep that we walk
Actions are louder than talk
So don't say you want to change
Do something to re-arrange
The bad we find everyday
Into goodness that will stay
Words are useless if we don't
Do the things our words have spoke
Everyone lets do one thing
Each day so that we can bring
Evil hatred to its knees
And bury it so we can leave
This planet in better shape
For our children- come on drape
Some happy kindness everywhere
We can all pass down and share
Held within my dreams
I can see you dieing
Deep within my veins
I can feel you crying
What has attacked you
Left you bleeding
What has Hurt you
Left you screaming
Why are you in so much pain
What has ripped out
Your soul and
Left you in shame
What tries so hard
To steal from you
Your name
Convince you to stop living
Wrapping even your hopes
in chains
Tell Me...
Can you hear me ?
Speak to me !
ONYX !!!
Listen to me !
Nicorates warned me about you
not so much with words
more in dubiety,
a clairaudient hesitation
imagine an experienced woodworm
widely travelled and well read
making peace with a cluttered desk top
within which it now dwells
keeping it right, advised
that's kind of it, really
suffice to say, Nicorates is rarely wrong
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