Sacred Profanity – 15th January 2026

God, I’ve got a nose to pick with you.
Are you listening to my angry prayer?
A few fucks in front of the altar?
It’s not like you’ve never heard me swear.

My reverent heresy is born from
The institution blindly followed.
To commit their violence in your name
Fed on half-truths, easily swallowed.

Shared with Tanka Tuesday – oxymoron but mine is just a nine-syllable quatrain. I got my challenges mixed up.

To Rise – 14th January 2026

Shared with dVerse Quadrille #239 – smile, which immediately made me think of the Fall and so I went investigating the lyrics of their album containing the titular song. The italicised words are taken from various songs from the album Perverted By Language.

Repetitious history
Disease-ridden southern spectres
To fall, to rise again

Back to trade, back to barter
War is over with no shots fired

Undone, the strife-knot
For it’s…
The death of the dimwits
That makes US smile

Global majority
Once perverted by language
Definitive


Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Cut The Strings That Pull Your Mind

Fear, suspicion and desire all may beg
For your time and attentions
A spark may be lighting the powder keg
To blow up your pretensions

The Mystery Of Truth – 13th January 2026

The timeless struggle, a beam of inspiration
Blunt honesty is held in the artist’s brush
Works stacked up, buzzing with anticipation
Laid down at the moment of the flush

At the origin, one’s own voice is found
Given shape to ideas born of ancient myths
To envy the truth is to live underground
Never to unfurl the scroll of trusted smiths

The sea change shift, no longer a mystery
The creative flow of a fluid history

Shared with Poetic Bloomings #576 – ‘The Mystery of …’ and The Sunday Whirl #739 word list:
beam blunt works moment own shape ancient envy truth scroll shift fluid


Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Circle Of Control

There’s only one thing to consider
This should make it clear
Your mind is your only business
The one thing you must hold dear

At Gethsemane – 12th January 2026

Incomplete, abandoned,
we yearn with our five senses;
Midnight-to-midnights found lacking;
universal consequences;

Aching for the beautiful and true,
filling the abyss with stones
God no longer answers
to the rattling of bones.

Inspired by this Red Hand File


Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

The One Path To Serenity

This morning, the sun rose without my asking
Before I lunch, I chose the freshest vegetables
In the afternoon came an uninvited guest
I trust that in the evening, a cool breeze will come

AI Socrates – 11th January 2026

Inspired by this post at Existential Comics that features an AI Socrates! I recommend giving it a try and posting your results in the comments.
(Actually, on review, Socrates is such an asshole that he just keeps repeating himself. He refused to write a poem with me.)


Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

If You Want To Be Unsteady

Seek the cave only for shelter
Peace must be found amongst your stresses
Running from problems is no answer
Make your choices and judgments your successes

The Bamboo Samurai – 7th January 2026

There’s a demon flame inside his heart
He spends all his energy to contain
The warmth will spread light in the dark
Knowing that what’s said will remain

He communes with the cats curled up cold
In the snow, that’s where children will play
The dogs are cautiously cool to the fire
Only a fool would look the other way

When the past catches up, as it always does
So two flames will dance a final duet
The ghost of the sword must be laid to rest
The flame extinguished by the mud and the wet

I recently finished reading the eight volumes of the Bamboo Samurai by Taiyō Matsumoto and for some reason, this week’s picture at MFFFC brought the story to mind.

When the two demons meet

The Seven Mountains Mandate – 6th January 2026

The Seven Mountains

1) Family

Vows are hammered into hinges,
genders stapled to locked doors.
Obedient to the Bibles;
The cradles are nailed to the floors.
The dominion of the supreme
begins in the caucasian stables;
Penetrating the hearts of those
white washed brains of Western fables.

2) Religion

All the steeples report to a single inbox,
apostles with Wi‑Fi, prophets push notification;
Every creed is poured into the same jar,
hymns auto-update to the latest revelation.
Bug fixes, patch notes for heresy.
Your faith, imported; kept in the cloud.
Mono-denomination default settings,
dual logins are disallowed.

3) Education

Orchards replanted in straight lines,
discipleship needs an iron fist.
Chromosome combinations unapproved
will be quickly dismissed.
Microscopes tilt toward Bethlehem;
Maths will subtract the deviations;
History will match the doctrine
of the chosen ones’ observations.

4) Media

Breaking news of the devils trending
as every headline lands baptised.
With commentary lighting every doubt
because evil is always disguised.
On camera confessions sung like hymns
single note songs of divine opinion;
Here’s John, making the weather
100% chance of dominion.

5) Entertainment

Scripts scrubbed until jokes stop sinning,
audience triggered by canned laughter
Donate now and pay salvation
to the never-ending hereafter.
Keep the sermons and cut the kissing,
rehearsed repentance on the count of four;
This is the Kingdom theology
that evangelised entertainment is made for.

6) Business

CFOs reassign the spreadsheet cells
so that the wealth flows like a river up the hill.
Coins are passed down as tidy miracles,
smaller pockets are easier to fill.
The market wears a crown of certainties,
the tides baptised and taught not to turn.
Forever and ever in expansion;
Quarter’s profits are the Kingdom’s concern.

7) Government

Every sermon is a filibuster,
committee meetings adjourn for prayer.
Laws paved with verses that do not bend
so that the illusion of choice seems fair.
The New Apostolic Reformation
writes the new biblical constitution,
to take control of the seven mountains
and be the singular institution.

Coda

They said, “Climb,” but meant, “Conquer.”
Said, “Kingdom,” but meant, “Yours, then ours.”
The mountains are moving without consent,
replaced with unattainable ivory towers.
The cathedrals make the most of the shadows;
The valleys must play a game of pretend;
These steeples demand your worship;
The gods are just around the bend.

Written after reading this concerning article by the ever-reliable Brian Dunning:

Don’t look now, but your church might be legitimately evil.
While you’ve been paying attention to other things, the New Apostolic Reformation has been rolling its tank tracks over the skulls of both secular democracy and traditional Christianity.


If you are from the USA and perhaps even more so, if you are also Christian, I recommend reading this, even if only to share your point of view.