You look uncomfortable in your skin,
The Entertainment – 13th September 2026
I will not be distracted from being the idiot
Do not make fun of my shiny red nose
You are all the clowns in my theatre
The unreasonable man in my shows
Written around the George Bernard Shaw quote, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Protecting Our Inner Fortress From Fear
When you’ve made your fortress strong
The outside cannot touch your soul
Worries and doubt will come along
And fear is always looking for a hole
The Vagaries – 12th September 2026
Could I be the river?
Could I be the fire?
Without being consumed
by the vagaries.
Waiting to live a life,
urgently fading away;
Lost in a labyrinth
of the vagaries.
Here lie my words; I had no choice.
Everything was easy, yet I made it worse.
You saw me live through it.
I had no choice; here lie my words.
A most precise parsing
of my amazement at my time.
My meditation
on my vagaries.
Inspired by and slightly paraphrased from this article at The Marginalian.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Be Down To Earth, Or Be Brought Down
Overconfidence is a great weakness
Too proud of your uniqueness
The humbling hurt is profound
When you’re brought back down to ground
Telling Time – 11th September 2026
Time reveals fragility
The status quo is a jester
A one-hit wonder
Soon lies under
The corpses of the investor
Entropy speeds up
Clinging to the last quarter
Tides recede
As they need
To find a new supporter
Inspired by a David Elikwu article at the Knowledge
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
What Would Less Look Like?
Could you carry on
If everything you had was gone?
When you live beyond your means
You live on borrowed dreams
The Amateur – 10th September 2026
In a perpetual state of curiosity,
I am the lover—the amator,
consumed by the pursuit,
never arriving as the station’s master.
Reshaped by the objects of affection—
endlessly revealing itself
with fresh eyes.
To be possessed by a god.
I am the midwife of ideas,
so come sit with me
and be courted every day.
Shared with dVerse: Poetics Tuesday – teachers
Information from DeepSeek that helped form this poem:
1. Amateur: From the Latin amator (lover). Originally, an amateur wasn’t a beginner; it was someone who did something for the love of it, rather than for mastery. A teacher who is still learning while teaching is an amateur in the truest sense, driven by a love of the subject and of the students.
2. A master has already arrived at their destination; they know the material, they deliver it, they clock out.
3. In Roman love poetry, the amator is constantly changed, humbled, and reshaped by the object of their affection. The subject endlessly reveals itself, and the student’s fresh eyes make the teacher see the subject anew.
4. Enthusiasm comes from the Greek enthousiasmos, which means”to be possessed by a god”.
5. ‘I am the midwife of ideas’ is from Socrates.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Preparing On A Sunny Day
As soldiers practice in peacetime
In happy days build your defences
Without a comparison to define
All your previous indulgences
Xenolith – 9th September 2026
Welcoming a stranger as a guest
We integrated at once, impressed
These fragments of a lucky break
The genesis of a world we’ll make
Pigs’ hearts will keep us beating
Fear will not have us retreating
We are the locked doors
inside the house.
Written for dVerse Quadrille #255 – xenolith
1. The prefix xeno- comes from the ancient Greek word xénos (ξένος), which simply meant “stranger,” “foreigner,” or “guest.”
2. The xenolith integrates when impressed into the larger rock.
3. The xenolith, as a fragment and lucky break, is just the randomness of nature. ‘Fragments of a Lucky Break’ is also the title of an album by Trumans Water.
4. Xeno-genesis: The process of an organism producing offspring that are completely different from itself. A nod to the dinosaurs and oil.
5. Xeno-transplantation: The transplantation of living cells, tissues, or organs from one species to another.
6. Xeno-phobia.
7 & 8: The xenolith is locked inside the rock. The “stranger” we fear most is the one we hide from within ourselves.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Nothing To Fear But Fear Itself
Living in fear is not living
Mistakes are made for forgiving
To convert retreat into advance
Fear must not be given a chance
Why Wait? – 8th September 2026
loving the process
you’ll no longer be waiting
for your happiness
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Don’t Be Deceived By Fortune
After working so hard for your wealth
How would you act when it’s taken away?
Will you still have hold on the meaning of self
And to deal with anything, come what may?
Every Number – 7th September 2026
What does a number do?
You’re invited—plus one
—that’s everyone!
The infinite conundrum.
Written for Poets and Storytellers United #243
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Our Hidden Power
You alone determine what your suffering means
No one can take that away from you
Your reasoned choice grows with your routines
Leading you to what you must do
Blessed Are The Stupid – 6th September 2026
From scratching a living,
mighty civilisations rose.
The first idiot
to get on the back of a horse knows
more than all
the philosophers pontificating.
The stupid step forward
while everyone else is waiting.
Thankfully,
the smartest could never persuade
the foolish from all
the bad decisions they made.
Inspired by Existential Comics #634
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
They Can Throw You In Chains But…
Freedom is misunderstood
Its power is in your mind
The chains may not feel good
But freedom is there to find
Bog Standard – 5th September 2026
All the lines here have been taken from An Existential Guide to: Making Friends (with some minor editing). Shared with dVerse: descort
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
1994ever 