Give me the moon, the silver moon,
light my way with a silver light –
let me feast on slivers of silvery cake,
on silver crescents of silver lemons,
floating in silver cups, on a silver tray.
This morning, she burned everything –
armfuls of dandelions and buttercups,
bundles of letters, piles of clothes.
She laughed, and told me she loves the sun –
burn everything, she says, burn my poems –
they’ll warm the world. Burn everything, then,
but leave me this cool garden, purpled
with twilight, a stream of silver winding
like thread. Leave me a statue, a star;
fish me a silver coin from the well,
fish a white pebble from the river,
pick a white lily from the lake,
and give me the moon.
Lillian is hosting at dVerse tonight, and we’re compounding – or, rather, de-compounding. There are 3 compound words taken apart in here – moonlight, sunburn and starfish.
Sarah writes poems 
Oh Sarah, this is so very well done. Sunburn is included so well….the repetition used throughout makes it all flow so well.
I am most especially smitten with these lines and the use of the root words for the compound word within these lines:
“Leave me a statue, a star;
fish me a silver coin from the well,
fish a white pebble from the river,
pick a white lily from the lake,
and give me the moon.”
Thank you so much for posting to the prompt! I think of you often – and send positive thoughts your way.
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Thank you – I really enjoyed this prompt. I feel like my poems have been getting smaller and tighter and sparser recently – minimalist poems – so it was great fun to just word-splurge for a change! I needed that.
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This is absolutely exquisite, Sarah! 💝 I especially love; “Burn everything, then, but leave me this cool garden, purpled with twilight, a stream of silver winding like thread.” Yes, we do love to write about the moon 😀
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OH so gorgeous. I loved the way you played with the colour of “silver” and the story is so intriguing. And this….. “burn my poems – they’ll warm the world”. What a fantastic line.
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Well THAT brought out the best…! Wonderful use of the compound there, in last stanza, but such a powerful pull to hour words, at first light, but them more heavy, more profound, the words carrying more weight…wonderful verse. A pleasure to read.
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A lot of silver in this Meisterwerk, Sarah, but if I had to give it a medal, I’d give it the GOLD!!!
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Oh! Such a silvery BEAUTIFUL poem! Sublime! I loved it completely.
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This was wondrous to read – especially enjoyed these …just lovely
Leave me a statue, a star;
fish me a silver coin from the well
leave me this cool garden, purpled
with twilight, a stream of silver winding
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Love the repetition of the silver moon, the burning, the fish, and finally back to the moon. Great use of the compound words specially, a star; fish….. Well done Sarah.
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I love the “decompounding” in action here. Beautiful imagery!
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So much energy in this! A very enjoyable read.
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The repetition of silver worked beautifully and there is a bit of urgency in your words that makes this beautiful verse so compelling!
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We have an eldercare organization here where the inmates are called Silvers. I could sense the calmness of the ambience in your poem, and why they preferred the word Silver, for a phase others call Golden Years.
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