Waiting By The Sea – 26th May 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 4 Comments

海

drawn by the ocean’s pendulum
one sea pulls two tides
ginseng from a foreign shore
so two oceans salt the skin


海漂

anchored by the absence

life woven with exotic light
a longitude of belonging
stretched over a starless map


海归

returning on an uncommon tide
new dialects translate as silence
roots return to familiar soil

a suitcase filled with the horizon


同河异流


we are the ocean’s answer to the shore
the dream of return, an anchor

the memory of departure, a ghost
two streams from the same river

Based on some research after reading this article by Jasmine Sun, and learning the Chinese word 海归 (sea turtle) and then its counterpart 海漂 (drifting at sea). In some ways, I am still the drifting sea turtle.
I also translated it into Chinese (below) and then back to English to see if there was any improvement with certain words. It seems to be a reasonable translation, though I have no idea how poetic it might be in Chinese.

海

被海洋的钟摆牵引
一海牵引两股潮汐
来自异乡的人参
两片海洋浸润肌肤

海漂

被缺席所锚定
生命与异域之光交织
归属的经度
延伸至无星的地图

海归

乘着不寻常的潮水归来
新的方言被解读为沉默
根回归熟悉的土壤
一个装满地平线的行李箱

同河异流

我们是海洋对海岸的回应
回归的梦想，一个锚
离别的记忆，一个幽灵
同一条河流的两条溪流

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Stop Caring What People Think

We love ourselves above all
But count our own opinions less
Don’t waste time on others’ thoughts
That will stop you in your progress

The Barkeep’s Lament – 25th May 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

In city lights on borrowed dime,
A job you hate wastes all your time.
You dress the part and ‘network’ well,
In curated tales you choose to tell.

Posing like a cool performer,
Editing with filters warmer,
In shadowed light, on barstool found,
Two nights are yours to fill with sound,

You rate the world in practised prose,
While your debt and doubt quietly grows.
So welcome, friend, to tonight’s shrine.
Now, what’s your poison? I’ve got mine.

Inspired by the writing of C. James Desmond at The Barman Substack

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Where To Find Joy

Proper human work brings joy
See how far comfort will get you
Idleness will easily destroy
And develop things to upset you

Oh! No! Homo Deus! – 24th May 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

We stand alone on an empty stage,

with little truth and a lullaby;

Talking to ourselves, negotiating with no one

– the animal without any obligations.

Line 2 is appropriated from a Matthew Maitland poem (link lost) and the rest is paraphrased from Noah Yuval Harari’s Homo Deus

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Making Your Own Good Fortune

Good impulses and actions
And a well-tuned soul
Bring you satisfactions
And isn’t that the goal?

Listen – 23rd May 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Inspired by a quote by Kate Murphy found at Maia’s Tiny Hearts.
I was surprised to find that I hadn’t already written a poem simply titled ‘Listen’

Listen, they said.
(The train pulls out of the old station)

Listen to your heart.
(Blood beats in disappointment)

Your inner voice.
(Whispered lies)


Listen to your guts.
(You found your way here)

They said.


When all I needed to do
was to listen more carefully
to you.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Show Me How To Live

A long life made of nothing
Forgetting the way to live
Fill it with a life ot something
Right now – it’s all you get and give!

Tricks Of The Light – 22nd May 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

The emperor remains magnificently robed;
until on closer inspection,
hems are fraying, and the fabric is thinning.

Stretched at the seams
by the bloated over-indulgence;
reminding himself that he’s always winning.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Today Is The Day

Today is the day tomorrow will speak about
Time is here, ticking
Break down all resistance and doubt
Start, and keep it sticking

The Promenade – 21st May 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 12 Comments

The church’s pale pink spire points to the promenade-
an outstretched hand as a tether,
anchoring her flight to the earth’s quiet gravity,
binding the sky to the soil.

Half-forgotten prayers billow crushed amethyst,
flowing against the wind’s invisible current.
His smile outshines the sun’s shy rays.

Slumbering mosaic fields and houses stacked
like dominoes, waiting for the earth to topple toward
a dark anchor in a world of gentle hues.

A blue-leaved tree-dream sentinel,
drinking the sky,
red cloth weeping its flowers into the grass,
a ghost of faith,
rising from the green hills like a…

…like a spilt bouquet of memories, full of a soft joy.

Shared with dVerse – Chagall picture prompt

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

What Kind Of Boxer Are You?

What advantage from abandoning your pursuit
Of wisdom when this is why you trained?
Skin calloused by suffering bears the fruit
Of all the knowledge you’ve obtained

Ship To Shore – 20th May 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 23 Comments
circle of truth
Blockade on blockade-
   time to sell those stocks.
Unplug the power grid,
   set for financial shocks.

Peace is a boondoggle
   for the dogs of war.
The circle always completes
   from ship to shore.

Business means bucks,
   made at any cost
   until...
   all ledgered lost.

Shared with dVerse Quadrille #248 – dog and inspired after looking up the meaning of boondoggle and having seen the attached image this morning.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Quality Over Quantity

At the end there are no prizes
For having read every word ever printed
One good book, full of surprises
Reveals more than all that’s imprinted

Where Do You Sit In The Evenings? – 19th May 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 29 Comments

Me:



Tending a small, walled garden

of rich, dark soil.



Knowing each rose by name

along the daily path.



The sun gentle, bees heavy

from bloom to bloom.



Evenings on the stone bench,

light softening.



To visiting friends,

offer freshly fallen pears.



The sweetest fruit, where
walls
keep out the wind.



“This is enough. It is whole.”



Myself:



Sweating on a bare, windy hill

hands raw from digging.



Not foundations, a channel

to the parched valley.



Working alone, 

or in threes



through scentless nights

of turned earth and distant rain.



Sipping from a metallic canteen,

satisfaction: not a harvest for eating.



Blistered palms nod 

horizon-ward



“That way, the water will run.”


I:



Sitting on the wall between

looking both ways.



The garden’s sun, the hill’s first cold drops

of the coming storm.



Not to tend or dig,

but to witness the tension,



the beautiful, 

unbearable pull.



Seeing the full-fruited pear tree,

the first trickle reaching



the cracked valley soil;

joy, a strange alloy.



A leaf in one hand,

a cold, wet stone in the other.



Not deciding,

the bridge between is and ought.



Meaning growing in the space

between wall and wilderness.

Inspired by the article The Good Life Paradox at Philosophy Now. Best viewed on a big screen.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Learn, Practice, Train

Learning is one aspect
But just words without practice and training
The proof is in the pudding
When the teacher has done explaining

I Knew It – 18th May 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 5 Comments

I didn’t know I knew it then,
unempowered and uninvited,
the teenager at the table,
full of an outrage ignited.

Then all the thinking came
to put an end to all my singing,
dousing the flames
of all the energy I was bringing.

But I looked out and saw the world
and knew what I’d always known;
Time had folded back around
to show me how I’d grown.

Yet another poem inspired by a post at Spinning Visions.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything

The future, thought of as fun
As too, ruminations on the past
Pay attention, before now is done
And everything unfinished and half-arsed

Tell Me Straight – 17th May 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 3 Comments

Trying to piece together a coherent story
I am both the detective and the witness
Everything that had seemed so ordinary
Now needed a statement from start to finish

From blowing bubbles, to makeshift stages
The camaraderie of the few
Hitchhiking home in a Ferrari
Wearing a three-piece suit and a mohawk

Favourite humans came and went
Always falling in and out of love
Always laughing, that was the only aim
When did those endless nights end?

From being cynically extreme,
We made a million sarcastically stupid stories
All the possibilities lie on the table
And we told all the debts to wait

Inspired by This Much Is True by Makenna Karas

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

The Stoic Is A Work In Progress

No one is perfectly formed
Progress is a process
Each step forward performed
A process for progress