Hollow Objectives – 2nd July 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

With infinite entertainments
And food delivered to the door
In climate-controlled environments
We couldn’t wish for anything more

But all with meaning begins to fade
We writhe with agony under the weight
Of an existential crisis made
As we focus on our internal state

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

On Duty and Circumstance

Amongst opportunities and obligations
So many questions will arise
Duty is found on solid foundations
So circumstance is never a surprise

The Hunt Is Over – 1st July 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

The hunt was for survival
The food was merely fuel
Now captive dancing monkeys
Has weakened the gene pool

Eating as performance
Is this a paradise on earth?
Slovenly and fattened up
For all of nature’s worth

Welcome to Universe 25
Coming to a city near you
Down into the behavioural sink
As all animals are wont to do

Inspired by another David Elikwu newsletter, this time about overabundance, how captive tigers are overfed by tourists and no longer hunt and the Universe 25 experiment, where rats in paradise ended up killing each other.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Do Your Job

Whatever anyone does or says
I must show my true colours
Every action, part of a system
Shared by the many others

Narrow Path – 30th June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments 
Spotlights follow all movement
       careful of each step made
Riding high on applause
       disconsolate at any boos
Hearted or disapproved
       it's here the game is played
One wrong step strikes out
       it's the narrow path to choose

A thought inspired by the Tao De Ching

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

The Obstacle is the Way

Someone may impede our actions
But they can’t impede intentions
Obstacles become satisfactions
To practice a form of excellence

Screen Shrine – 29th June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Inspired by this article at Blackbird Spyplane, which centres around this quote* (paraphrased) from Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle.

When you realise the world is always the same
It’s just your view that changes

To make life interesting, you make it into a game
To win or lose
It’s all the same

*This life gives you nothing
You’re just passing time*
Accepting nothing in surrender

More alone than ever, in mental decline
Trapped in the goon cave shrine

Ironically, even in writing this, I didn’t take the time to read the whole article yet!

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

No Excuses

Your stupid excuses are made to justify
Your position without improving
‘Everyone does it’ does not justify
The life you must be choosing

All Manner Of Things – 27th June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 9 Comments

The trepidation is acute
I ain’t got no motivation
Not even for a haiku
It’s verging on paralysing
But I must write for you

An ephemeral burst
of Fireblossom’s perfumes
these anxieties are
intrinsic word engines

Experimenting – to that motion
By stirring the pot, poets shirk
responsibility when it’s taboo

Sober rhythms revealing
something of my soul
I can scent intentions
but it’s also little wonder
I felt scared

The art blues of a job left undone,
of lucky fragments lacking sense,
is its own torment
zeroes sums to a dream unrealised

The coyote eats its own kind,
and fox of hell’s hidden rooms
turning creativity, so cunning,
into wildflowers of a beautiful war

After all that digging, in the weeds
are heroes of the noblest contest

The lilies, finest of them all
in this soup of writing,
of punning, all manner of things
shall be well.

This is another old dVerse prompt that I kept in mind and returned to today. The idea is to write a new poem while weaving in fragments of an old poem, which must be kept in their original order. I decided to use my own short poem, ‘No Haiku’, italicised above. While thinking about this idea, I was also reading the latest (at the time) Red Hand Files #365, from which I noted down several nice phrases (in bold above) in Nick Cave’s reply, along with a quote (bold italic) from Julian of Norwich, utilised for the title and final line. I decided to try to work these two narratives together. Clean text below should be easier to read.

The trepidation is acute
I ain’t got no motivation
Not even for a haiku
It’s verging on paralysing
But I must write for you

An ephemeral burst
of Fireblossom’s perfumes
these anxieties are
intrinsic word engines

Experimenting to that motion
By stirring the pot, poets shirk
responsibility when it’s taboo

Sober rhythms revealing
something of my soul
I can scent intentions
but it’s also little wonder
I felt scared

The art blues of a job left undone,
of lucky fragments lacking sense,
is its own torment
zeroes sums to a dream unrealised

The coyote eats its own kind,
and fox of hell’s hidden rooms
turning creativity, so cunning,
into wildflowers of a beautiful war

After all that digging, in the weeds
are heroes of the noblest contest

The lilies of them all
in this soup of writing,
of punning, all manner of things
shall be well.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Adversity Reveals

How did complaining help?
Now you have more things to do
Take the challenge upon yourself
This future is a gift given to you

Are You Alive? – 26th June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

A brutal plunge into ice
A pounding at your ribs
Are you still alive?

Excruciatingly difficult words
Resolve the years of tension
Now you’re alive

The terror of the stages
You’ll still sleep tonight
You know you’re alive

Concentrated suffering
Is the strength of Spartans
Tomorrow you’ll be dead

Double up on credit cards
Comfortably stuck in bed?
You’re already dead

Inspired by another newsletter from David Elikwu

A Table Set For One Instead Of Ten – 25th June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 10 Comments

The steady hum of overlapping hands,
Hallways thick with the echo of our names.
School bells gathered us like windswept sands,
To kitchen tables of communal claims.

The city that we built, we knocked it down;
Your side of the bed is no longer warm.
Those names are now a room I walk around;
No audience left for whom to perform.

Streetlights shine where I no longer belong,
Just one plate set at a table for ten.
I am the echo that once was a song;
Now silence settles in my inkless pen.

Written for dVerse – juxtaposition. This is a commentary on the contrast between our past and current (or future) selves.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

The Wise Don’t Have ‘Problems’

The wise person understands expectations
Knowing when to keep their mouth shut
We should listen in most situations
When we mostly do anything but….

Observation Affects The Outcome – 24th June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Life is a quantum woman,
known, but unable to be described;
Lived but never solved
and so the mystery has survived.

To mark a line has no meaning
unless there was something before,
but thinking on it wastes time
when living is what it is for.

Looking at it makes it disappear,
like horizons in the Himalayas;
Seek and ye shall not find
such wisdom from the soothsayers.

The temple is not outside;
prayers are shared in the wrong direction.
Breathing in, breathing out,
let go your ego’s protection.

We’re involved in eternity,
our houses will come and go,
and while everyone knows who you are,
you’ll never really know.

Inspired by and paraphrased from Osho’s Life, Love, Laughter.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

The Truly Educated Aren’t Quarrelsome

Education negates the fights
Keeping to one’s own affairs
Don’t worry about wrongs and rights
Arguing what no one cares

Lemongrass – 23rd June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

Cooking under the tin roof
the humid rains will pitter-patter,
the chef remains aloof
to the oil’s sizzling splatter;

The house becoming eager;
the wind’s historical waft,
a heritable recipe keeper;
a plate that’s quickly scoffed;

A herb of refined taste,
enhancing by its bright flavour;
no tall stalks to waste,
tightly chopped to savour;

I like it! But what is this?
the dish has been disguised,
a little ginger, a little citrus,
my taste buds smile, surprised.

Written (after the fact) for the GloPoWriMo Day 6 prompt:
write a poem describing the taste of the item in Column A, using the words that appear in that row in Column B and C. For bonus points, give your poem the title of the word that appears in Column A for your row, but don’t use that word in the poem itself.

LemongrassPitter-PatterEager

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

The Long Way Around

Some days the long way around rewards
But you miss everything close to hand
Everything you were working towards
Was far simpler than you had planned