“Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.” – Andre Gide
Inspired/paraphrased from this Peanuts strip (which I now want to read more of, thanks to this article)
1.
A kangaroo skipped in
while blustering storms
blew through cobwebbed windows
shuddering bed frames
jolting my dreams to life—
losing a day somewhere over the ocean
2.
A Golden Kaiser-i-Hind flew down
from the highest bough
and fell into my warm hands
a little too soon
a smooth and shiny candy
eager to be eaten
3.
A quiet smiling kokeshi
on the bookshelf
anime eyes wondering
a green tea maid
a soy sauce sorceress
keeping secret doubts
4.
A spicy Sriracha soi dog
wanders a tropical island night
shadow dancing in firelight
before sunrise reveals
floods of frangipani
and a chain of jasmine blossoms
5.
All of all of you
broke off a piece
that you keep
as I keep mine
like a trinket
like a teacher
Shared with dVerse MTB: Cadralor
5 numbered stanzas
choose 3-10 lines per stanza (keeping the stanza length throughout)
each stanza stands alone as an imagist poem (just the obliquest of connections)
5th stanza pulls the 4 unrelated stanzas together into a poem of love, of yearning
rhymes and syllabic meter are NOT wanted
Golden Kaiser-i-Hind is China’s national butterfly
A kokeshi is a traditional Japanese doll
A soi dog is a stray Thai dog (soi means lane)
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Paraphrased from Existential Comics #641
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
the tick
tick
clicking
creaking
on the stairs
...
three incessant brides
seductive
and cold
count steps
into a darkened cellar
strewn with time's dead flowers
and déjà vu
...
tick
tick
click
Shared with dVerse Poetics, taking Bauhaus’ Bela Lugosi’s Dead as inspiration and borrowing the line ‘strewn with time’s dead flowers’. Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó was Bela Lugosi’s full name.
Prompt: Write from inside an abandoned mansion after midnight. There is no obvious ghost—yet every room suggests someone has only just left.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Inspired by the Hedgehog’s Dilemma.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem
From the widespread blackouts
to the districts' neon-bright,
a low voltage of anxiety
crackles through the night.
—I am this city.
In the pulse of stalled traffic,
through the sirens' angry weave,
under lonely concrete bridges
I sometimes sit and grieve.
Then midnight sends her repair crews
to patch the potholes deep
all down my memory lane,
while subconscious consoles sleep.
Applause trembles in my ribs,
a protest locks my jaw
this fractured municipality
is what I'm rooting for.
What this city dares to admit;
the details of its trauma;
the bus route takes a detour
as service restored, much warmer.
Inspired after reading Maia’s Diaries
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Inspired by this SubStack post at Tokyo Notebook, where two people would communicate daily or weekly or whenever but using this format and just using small true statements about what has happened in their lives. I thought that it was a cute idea.
This True Monday was 13th April 2026
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Very much paraphrased from Existential Comics #635 – check it out.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
The all-seeing eyes,
follow every step,
guard against surprise,
make promises kept.
The village corner
where the aunties meet;
daily informer,
down on gossip street.
Coming and going,
it's all kept on file.
In need of knowing?
Give auntie a smile.
Everyone knows everything that goes on in the village. No need for cameras.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
