Shall there be a soothing rest within the arms of a shallow grove, from whence the aches of an early dawn arise in its presence, as a burning flame before the veiled eyes of a sterling mire? Count it not as so, that all inherently good things one might seek may be levied by the hands of time, for those that are of the same zealous mind, that can neither be accepted nor denied.
Alfredo Gonzales
5/6/2024
moon
sweeps like
a lantern
glazed in sterling
stars
Birth of a nation birth of a child
Celebration tears from soldier proud
He can be her she can be the
All tears of love in the infantry
My cousin fought in Vietnam
His name is as hard as his job then
As a medic he saw many sons
And daughters at their bloody end
The blue tears he has for years
Are all streaming inside
In war he fought for those tears
Aftermath he stays high to not cry
What made my soldier cry so raw
Is a land that his ancestors were enslaved
And yet he fought for all
Despite injustice for the black man today.
7/2/2022
Written for TEARS OF A VALIANT SOLDIER CONTEST
Sponsor Faraz Ajmal
C-ompose
R-ighteous
I-dea's
S-terling
T-opic
E-mploying
T-he
A-crostic
S-tyle
A-nd
B-rilliance
A-bout
L-iterary
O-bjective
Topic: Birthday of Cristeta E. Sabalo (June 27)
Form: Vertical Monocrostic
J-ust
E-xpress
S-terling
S-tatement
I-n
E-pitomic
C-lass
A-s
T-houghts
A-re
N-oble
Topic: Birthday of Jessieca P. Tan (January 25)
Form: Vertical Monocrostic
J-ust
E-agerly
S-cribe
S-terling
P-oem
O-f
R-emarkable
T-ruth
U-sing
G-reat
A-crostic
L-ine
Topic: Birthday of Jess G. Portugal (February 11)
Form: Vertical Monocrostic
Sterling silver
Sterling character
Sterling as a last name
Sterling as a football player or movie star
Sterling as the name of a city
Sterling is pure
Sterling is unsullied
Sterling is outstandingly glitzy
Sterling is humble but righteous
Sterling brings a moderate appetite for glamour or fame
Sterling is a silver paint
Sterling is a word on a fork or spoon
Sterling is a value mark
Sterling is pristine
Sterling is real
Soak into your senses
Stop stepping down your standards for someone's satisfaction
Your skeptical because selflessness sent you staggering
Stumbling and succumbing to something you are not
Something stagnantly synthetic
Submerged under the surface
Something inside you sees the shackles separating you from sustainment
Trying to salvage the shortcomings and sever the shady feelings of the struggle
Be satisfied to step up and stand out
You are sterling in singularity
with sterling pen in hand and splintered heart
the poems flow day after day
beneath the old white birch
AP: Honorable Mention 2021
Sterling November and I can feel the winds of change
Now in the shadow of the moons' bright light
Well we may not have it all together but together we
Have it all somehow that gives me hope
Wagon half empty, wagon half full well it's all in how
You look at it and this season of giving nothing is taken
For granted feast or famine it's all good although this
Year the barn is a lost cause I must say God has been
Benevolent today
I close my eyes and bow my head in prayer arms full
Of firewood in the cold frozen air and that gives me
Faith over fear tonight my heart is aware
In the shadow of the moons' bright, bright light now we
May not have it all together but together we have it all
Somehow and gives me the hope to cope as I gather
The last little bit of The Autumn Harvest...
Sterling silver spikes me softly
Come inside the wound and make it yours
Taste the blood and wonder at the glory
Of crushing into dust your palm.
Sing me to sleep with your whispers
Cradle me with your tears
Trace my lips with your irony
And smooth my hair with your inconsistency.
Teach me to walk as if I don’t feel
Guide me into despair.
Teach me the walls of dreaded safety
Guide me into dereliction.
Scream with no voice
Sleep with no dreams
Dangle with no gravity
Hold my hand like a gun
Drink in my eyes like arsenic
Kiss my mouth with suffocation
Bite my neck to steal my control.
Hear with no feeling
Drown with no water
Leap.
This Sterling Day of Nothing
Where is God?
God is where gods are not.
Not in office bright,
Or silver stairs cued to reason
Or trapped in football season,
Or filled to the brim,
in fife and bugle corps where
Ceremony roars;
Or dangling from her chin,
Or full and bright in summer’s glory;
But deep within the fibers of your
Carpet; God lays in wait, sledded
Glory; Plaintively you step upon his skin;
You trip his wires boundless to seep
Through the gap – this day,
This sterling day of nothing.
Some of us wear simple pewter bracelets,
others many gold hoops.
Some of us wear the love of another in the form of a diamond wedding ring,
shining in the happy light.
Some have dragons coiled around strong fingers, next to the Irish Claddath,
a billboard of our "Vacancy" or "No Vacancy".
Some wear the rule of a kingdom snugly upon their neck, clutching it tight with
wary fingers.
Some wear the death of hundreds on their head, dark and disastrous.
We as a people wear strange jewelry.
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.