A Precautionary Grace – 9th June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Sweet Juliets
Doe-eyed and delicious
Not for eating
Yet quietly seditious

Ceramic skin
Smoother than porcelain
Fingers get burned
Pushing all the way in

Swaying saplings
Fluttering in the breeze
Blooms unfolding
Inviting with unease

Little sirens
Prettier than peaches
Laid bare, the soul
Where temptation reaches

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Solve Problems Early

Problems gather their strength
To boil your blood
Cross the river at the source
And nip it in the bud

These Iron Nails – 8th June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments
From The Globe and Mail

South, a thirty-hour wound in a steel intestine
digesting human hope in a waking dream.
Stepping into battle armed with a naive heart;
a bitter baptism reveals the city’s scheme.

In a school of unlearning, identities erased,
drifting through days, haunting his own life like a spectre,
a walking zombie in an abyss of solitude.
Salvation binds him to a lifetime debt collector.

Novelty, a fragile perfume of exploitation,
earning a sixpence without seeking the moon.
Youthful energy spent with diminishing returns,
each hour a grain of sand in an unending dune.

Wild lychees will blossom from this barren soil,
a slow transformation as the silkworm will awaken.
Maps appearing within peripheral vision,
unearthed emotions light the roads to be taken.

Scrapheap bound, a common grave for these iron nails;
authentic wildflowers seek the soils of progress.
The family of dreamers was a forest grown overnight,
only to be cleared away by the dawn of their success.

Another poem based on Adrift in the South by Xiao Hai in Granta magazine, detailing the life of migrant labour in China. I managed to suitably condense this one into just five stanzas!

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Brick By Boring Brick

This is your life you’re building
Surely things will get in the way
To make your house, the holes get filled in
Minutes to hours, day by day

The Arrangement – 7th June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

*The first line was written by Matthew Maitland (link gone again!) and this poem is somewhat of a response to his.

*I wrote so much and it didn’t matter;

it looked as if nothing had changed.

But I was looking out, instead of in,

which is where everything was rearranged.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Finding The Right Mentors

Your parents may not have been the best
And you didn’t get to choose
Find a mentor who can put to the test
Your aspirations and your views

The Magic Lantern – 6th June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment 
The lantern projects history with missing slides,
  as the indexers make silhouettes lengthen.
Within the beam of light is where truth now resides;
  your own perception becomes impossible to strengthen.

Made of digital blood, one click away from bleach,
  razor blades edit the gospel at the index's altar.
Hypnotised by easy answers is the new way to teach,
  so the cartographers of thought will never falter.

Word of mouth becomes the contraband tech
  and whisper-networks are analogue servers.
Memory is embodied outside the cloud codec
  and exists only for interested observers.

Inspired by Indexing Thoughts at The Harbinger SubStack

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

When To Stick And When To Quit

There are the monoliths – the stickers
And those who constantly quit the line
Then there are those, neither stickers nor quitters
Who know how to change at the right time

Cop In Your Pocket – 5th June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

You’ll never walk alone
with a cop in your pocket,
surveilling from your phone.

Everything uploaded,
now, it’s too late to stop it;
analysed, decoded.

Each decision reviewed
may forfeit your deposit;
so check your attitude.

Black mirrors being held
to ransom for a profit;
so, suitably compelled.

Surveilling for your phone,
with a cop in your pocket.

You’ll never walk alone.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Blow Your Own Nose

The world is unfair; this may be true
Practically speaking, what good is that to you?
Oh woe is you! You still have hands
Get active and do it while you can

The Better Man – 4th June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 20 Comments

Something old

Something new

Something borrowed

Something blue

A sixpence in her shoe

Our friendship before the loan

Your silence after

My twenty dollars

The colour of your absence

Was worth it

Shared with dVerse Poetics. The ‘something borrowed’ line reminded me of the thought, ‘If you lend someone twenty dollars and never see them again, then it was probably worth it.’ I’ve tried to ‘marry’ the two ideas together here.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

This Is What We’re Here For

No one said life was easy – it’s true
No one said that it would be fair
It’s been done before – you can do it too
It’s tradition, and you’re the heir

He Is Here – 3rd June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 20 Comments

Horns no longer hidden
Pointed at yellow lines
Crossing them is forbidden
Stripped to their confines

Facing rape with guns
Exterminating daughters and sons
Behold the chosen ones

Horns are now revealed
Along with exposed tails
Evil no longer concealed
The devil is Israel’s

Shared with dVerse Quadrille #249 – horns and inspired by the actions taken by the IDF against the flotilla activists who were kidnapped in international waters while trying to bring aid to the Palestinians who are, ironically, being genocided by Israel. Sorry if you don’t like the message. I don’t like the inhumanity and I will protest through my poetry.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

It Is Well To Be Flexible

What’s wanted may not be possible
Nor your second choice or third
It is well to be humble and flexible
To be a human being of our word

Just To Say – 1st June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 7 Comments

Is this even a poem?

These are instructions for living a life!

So pay attention, be astonished!


There are lines to be read between

where secrets lie awaiting the skilled reader.

My second attempt at awesoku and inspired/paraphrased from this Substack post – How To Like Poetry, written by Isaac Kolding.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Always Have A Mental Reverse Clause

Things won’t always behave as instructed
Our reverse clause can be arranged
Our progress can be impeded or disrupted
But the mind can also be changed

Seed Fall – 31st May 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 23 Comments

She cracked the dry seed pod open,
tipped the tiny black seeds into my hand,
closing my fingers around them—
a secret we both knew would not grow here.

Did she close my fingers to keep them safe,
or to make sure that I would feel them slip away?

I let go of the seeds—
but I kept the shape of her fingers closed around mine.

Shared with Poets and Storytellers United #229 – Letting go

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

We Have But One Obligation

In your life, there’s just one thing
That must be done to make it sing
Be a good person, make no excuses
Do your job so that no one loses