Let’s Get Gone – 3rd March 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Go, go, let’s go, let’s get gone


I know, I know, it will get done


Each dawn ignites the blaze, the spark


Set fire to the fires in the dark


Take me, make me, burn, burn, burn


Now! Now! Now! – There’s much to learn

Written (well after the fact) for the GloPoWriMo 2025 prompt Day 15:
…informed by repetition, simple language, and expressing enthusiasm. They have a sermon/prayer-like quality, and then end with a bang. Your challenge is to write a six-line poem that has these same qualities.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

(Dis)Integration

Stand with the philosopher, or with the mob
We’ve all got a little Jekyll and Hyde
Don’t let contradictions turn into an inside job
Reason with complications must be applied

No Encores – 1st March 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

Not a new metaphor by any means but this is my take on the theatre of life. Another poem, belatedly, written for Punam’s dVerse prompt of using opening lines to books as closing lines to poems. This one is “Here is a small fact: You are going to die” from The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

Act 1, Scene 1:

Scriptless and shoved onstage mid-scene,
hot lights glaring;
applause and judgment circling
for lines never rehearsed.

And yes,
every actor exits,
no matter how fierce their monologue.
A trapdoor beneath every spotlight.

The curtain falls without exception.

Act 1, Scene 2:

Between the acts of this cabaret
there is that strange, unchoreographed stretch;
where the stage lights hum
and the lines grow thin in our hands.

And those unscripted pauses,
those missed cues and improvised lines…?
They are only the bright, temporary glare,
the hush before applause or silence,

Act 2, Scene 1:

and the quiet truth
that for a moment,
against your choosing…

you were here
in the light.

Act 2, Scene 2:

You owe the audience nothing.
You are simply here, for a brief while,
and your time is yours to fill
or to simply endure, as you must.

No obligation,
only the raw,
temporary fact of existence itself.

Act 2, Scene 3:

Birth – a brutal act that makes me wonder, ‘why?’

Finale:

Here is a small fact:
you are going to die.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Where Philosophy Begins

Exercise reason, question your beliefs
Consider everything taken for granted
Take the first steps towards inner peace
With the seeds, just yesterday, planted

Hushes – 28th February 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 17 Comments

Shared with W3 #200 – alphabet poetry

ash beneath cradle;

drifting
echoes,
fade;

glowing hushes
in jewelled knots

linger,

murmur;

night observations
pale quietly;

ribbons, silvery tin;
under veils,

wispy x-rays
yearning zero.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

When You Lose Control

Reason may have abandoned you
But it was you who had abandoned it
After messing up, what did you do?
Stop! Compose! And just let it sit

Cold Dawn – 27th February 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 18 Comments

you were my shoulder
i lay my head upon you
where i learned to sleep

daily arrivals
would calm the tremors of my
shaken psychosis

you always wanted
more of me, I would prostrate
blind, oblivious

you were in control
but i woke to the cold dawn
sick of your deceit

the truths that you told
between the lies were only
my own self-abuse

Shared with Tanka Tuesday #53 – rensaku. This poem follows on neatly from yesterday’s, the effects of alcohol still on my mind and foregoing the request of seasonal poetry in the prompt, perhaps. This set of senryu tells an autobiographical story and maybe, just maybe, highlights an emotional spring, an awakening.
The seed of the idea for this poem came from reading Matthew Maitland’s ‘You Want Mythology?’

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Cultivating Indifference Where Others Grow Passion

There are virtues and there are vices
All the indifferents lie in between
Cake is cake, no matter how it slices
Always coverting more is obscene

The Song Sparrow – 26th February 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 20 Comments

Shared with dVerse Poetics Tuesday – use a classic opening line as an ending line. I chose Charles Bukowski’s Ham On Rye, ‘The first thing I remember is being under something.’ I’m not familiar with the story but I ended up with the idea of Hank waking from his dreams and memories of the night before.

I was terrified, my sweaty hands shaking
a brittle-boned cold heat fever
a pillow headache, suffocating
on a bilious, swollen tongue

thick with last night

smoky lungs, coughing iron filing lumps
of congealed blood
bitter, soggy pills in a pail.


She had shimmered in the weak light
through the foggy frame
whispered strawberries through rotten teeth
my ears are catching golden secrets
often repeated on other nights
in other city lights


As the working men clocked out
boots echoing toward small kitchens
a small brown bird tapped rhythmically
at the window
to bring my relief to an end
and the first thing I remember
is being under something.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

To Each His Own

When you give a piece of your mind, it’s refused
Just as you would do when verbally abused
No one feels better, nothing is achieved
No point to giving, if nothing is received

μακάριος – 25th February 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 14 Comments

Shared with dVerse Quadrille #242 – hunger
μακάριος (makarios) is the Greek word for blessed.

I would fill my hollow leg
with all the libraries’ best
To wave the wolves away
at my open doors

My fire burns through these leaves
in cultivation of curiosity

Grafting facts, pruning the fat (…)

Blessed are they which do hunger
until elegant sufficiency.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

The Smoke And Dust Of Myth

Castles of sand are soon erased
The peasant buried next to the king
To our emotions we become enslaved
When in reality – it’s all just nothing

Unplug – 24th February 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 7 Comments

When they need your attention to survive

The best thing to do is chaos-post their demise

Meme the truth until their servers crash

Pirate their textbooks and skip all the ads

Everything is an AI scam, so go wreck ’em

Uninstall your life and then forget ’em

I sometimes use AI to post notes for my poetry on Substack. I ask it to give me a Gen Alpha voice. This poem is inspired by the results of one such exercise, enjoying some of the phrases that it came up with.
27th Feb – Shared with dVerse OLN to get a few more eyes on this one.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

The Real Source Of Harm

On to fiery anger, you pour more fuel
Until you, too, shall burn
Confrontation makes you the fool
Control is what we must learn

New Tree Knows – 23rd February 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 7 Comments

it’s my con – fusion
that gets deep under your skin

i’m penetrating



my ghost particles

in trillions, unaffected

they see right through you

Shared with SenHai Saturday #40 image prompt

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Circumstances Have No Care For Our Feelings

What cannot respond to our cries
A rage falling on deaf ears
A situation cannot tell you lies
Unless you choose what one hears

Sumo Haiku – 22nd February 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 3 Comments

let Hakuho Shō 

come and make my baby cry

good health together

In Japan, letting a sumo wrestler make your baby cry is believed to bring good health. Hakuho Shō is a famous sumo wrestler, winning 45 tournaments.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

What’s Better Left Unsaid

Better to consider before one speaks
Is it opinion or knowledge you spout?
Do you suffer a mouth that leaks?
Perhaps it’s better kept in and not out.