Everyone upset all the time
The Accident Of Time – 9th February 2026
Trapped in a perpetuum mobile
of present moment stimulation,
not thinking about how to feel
outside of the ‘now’ situation.
Keep the babies quietly scrolling,
rehearsing their spectrum patterns;
boredom counter by constant extolling
of the anxiety that happens.
Swipe away any diagnosis,
all attentions have been diverted;
never quiet enough to notice
that society has been perverted.
Inspired by a David Elikwu newsletter discussing Paul Virilio’s ideas about dromology and how everyone is being diagnosed with ADHD now.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
You Don’t Have To Have An Opinion
There are whispers never heard,
mistakes that were never seen.
Must we always add our word?
Just imagine it had never been.
The Clinic’s Shore – 8th February 2026

The gale is not the danger, nor the weather.
We dare not be seen together.
This coast holds no time or place for ‘us’.
Grey storm billows round our skirts.
These rocks absorb our silent hurts.
The gale is not the danger, nor the weather.
We watched for them, their cold inspections,
Their tools to breach our skin’s reflections.
We dare not be seen together.
So let the surge take what it pleases,
Our love, lost to the salt-slick breezes.
This coast holds no time or place for ‘us’.
A cascading poem shared with dVerse MTB
Liker – 7th February 2026
Like a single soggy cornflake left in the bowl, you’re a disappointing ending.
Like a pubic hair on a hotel soap, you’re an intimate violation, offending.
Like a hiccup in a eulogy, you break the moment with awkward spite.
Like a sock perpetually damp from a leaky boot, you’re a stinker, all right!
Like a wet handshake in a steam room, you’re a clammy compromise.
Like a toothache in a novocaine dream, you’re a dull, persistent surprise.
Like the squeak of polystyrene on a filling, you grate on my very nerves.
Like a vibrator in a library, you’re as deeply inappropriate as deserves.
Like the tang of a coin pulled from a wishing well, you’re metallic and tainted with bad taste.
Like a vulture circling a car with a flat tyre, your hope is morbidly misplaced.
Like the fungus on a neglected potted plant, you’re a sign of a deeper rot.
Like a terrible sixties movie remake, you are from the land that time forgot.
Like the last roll of toilet paper, clinging by a perforation, your support is single-ply-thin.
Like a fire alarm test during a nap, you’re a shrill and scheduled ruin.
Like a cigarette break in a downpour, you’re a miserable, fleeting treat.
Like the ambient laugh track on a cancelled sitcom, your joy is canned and obsolete.
Like a participation trophy made of corroded tin, you celebrate an empty try.
Like a pixelated pornographic blur, you’re where the details go to die.
Like a mayfly with seasonal affective disorder, your brief life is also glum.
Like a jellyfish beached and melting into grit, you’re a failed, gelatinous crumb.
Like the X-Ray of a swallowed wedding ring, you’re a costly, internal mistake.
Like a pigeon with a gammy leg, you inspire the pity of a nagging headache.
Like the click of an empty water pistol in a standoff, you’re an anticlimactic threat.
Like the silence after a whoopee cushion at a funeral, you’re a joke no one can forget.
Shared with dVerse Poetics – Similes! This write is very much inspired by John Cooper-Clarke’s Twat, which you must read here.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Fear Is A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Succumbed to what was dreaded,
is it only the paranoid who survive?
Self-control keeps us level-headed
and able to continue to thrive.
All Sins – 6th February 2026
~
written confessions
burned or buried in the sand –
you are my witness.
~
shame cannot survive being
spoken in this space.
~
a quiet intervention
within the circle;
a therapy for family –
can all sins be forgiven?
~
a moral compass,
bent to the will of power;
broken on purpose.
A choka/senryu shared with Tanka Tuesday #50 – cleansing
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Don’t Seek Out Strife
We can agree that peace is better than war
So the choice to struggle – what is it for?
Out of control, we’re afraid to sit still
When the reasoned choice would be to stop and chill
The REDACTED Files – 5th February 2026


Written after seeing some disturbing images of REDACTED with REDACTED. I don’t know if they were part of the REDACTED files or if they were real but sadly, it seems likely.
Shared with W3 #197 – erasure poem – redacted
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Steady Your Impulses
Soaring highs and crushing lows
Impulses always keep on coming
Ask yourself: Who is in control here?
Get your steady engine humming
Axis Mundi – 4th February 2026


Shared with What Do You See #326 picture prompt
A reliquary, stone and timber,
void, earth, water, wind, and fire,
A shinbashira pendulum
that sways to quell the quake’s desire.
A cosmic axis, a connection
from human to the divine,
A transcendental protection
in sacred mandala’s design.
Hear the peaceful water’s fall,
the way cannot be denied,
Shadows span the temple tall
in the mountain countryside.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
On Being Invincible
Able to parry any blow
without flinching or reaction
Our reasoned choice will know
the best course of action
Jigsaws – 3rd February 2026
cold compressed jigsaws
hardened in fire, abstracted
pathways to the depths
once I was walking
out of the darkness knowing
that I will walk back
Shared with the I Write Her Senhai Saturday #37 picture prompt
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
The Source Of Your Anxiety
Ask yourself ‘what is it you want?’
Does your anxiety serve you well?
Why sacrifice your peace of mind
when the gods of fate will never tell?
Always – 2nd February 2026

hall
ways to the vanishing
point me the way forward,
let me out!
trapped!
this nightmare never ends;
it starts over again.
A corridor poem about a corridor. A form invented by Lesley Scoble here, and a syllable count of 1,6,6,3,1,6,6.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
A Proper Frame Of Mind
Impulses no longer pull my strings
No longer having to argue all the things
That self-control, happiness brings
Independent, self-sufficiency sings
The Teakettle – 1st February 2026
wait for the whistle
twiddle thumbs in simpler times
hot water relief
Haiku inspired by this Substack post by Nilofer Neubert
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
