“Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.” – Andre Gide
Bronze Age ashes sleep to the north,
Roman coins whisper further south.
Down in Cragg Vale,
King David the counterfeiter
shaved gold by the candle's light.
The Mytholmroyd Bridge remembers
flooding at the Gallows Pole
and every hanged man's shadow
on York Tyburn stones.
Shared with dVerse Quadrille #250 – myth, where De Jackson sent me off to Wikipedia to search for information about Mytholmroyd, a place I’ve never heard of before.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Along with the two lines linked, this poem very much paraphrases someone else’s writing, but I didn’t take note of the author! I guess this could be considered a cento as these lines, and my own, got smashed together, inspired by this Substack post by Luciana Cole. I can identify with the feeling, though I, myself, am much brighter these days.
A pedal point is a sustained note during which the harmony above it changes in some way so that the overall sound becomes dissonant.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Inspired by various things that I read and wrote today.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
The old tree before the door has grown new shoots,
my toenails have grown thick and black;
The dead tree in the yard is blooming again
but each day, I shed more skin;
I've held on to so many words over a lifetime,
they are still rattling around,
- stored them in a head of white hair,
- stored them in crow’s feet.
In my memory, a girl with little feet
and a chubby little mouth
Waddling around the yard
where ducks and chickens peck at seeds;
I gave her my love for a lifetime
watching her fly away
All for the sound of "mum" and "dad" ;
all given to the golden prince across the valley;
Where has the time gone?
I was holding on to it so tightly;
I haven't yet enjoyed youth and I'm already old
my star descending;
Raising sons and daughters for a lifetime
will I meet them again in the next life?
I must tell myself so
My mind is full of children crying and laughing;
my mind, crying and laughing;
Where has the time gone?
I was holding on to it in hope;
I still haven't taken care of you properly,
and my eyes are already failing;
I will dig a comfortable hole in the earth
for our future;
Daily necessities for a lifetime now,
it’s your turn;
Do not forget,
in the blink of an eye, all that's left is a face full of wrinkles,
All that’s left is a dead tree with new shoots.
The words in bold are an annotation of the Chinese song 时间都去哪儿了 found here at the East Asia Student site. I have taken them and added to them (for better or worse?)
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Written for dVerse: Legs Eleven.
The Hendecastich by Michael Fantina
11 line poem
1 stanza
alternates iambic feet of four (tetrameter) and one (monameter) (ignored!)
i.e. syllables: 8-2-8-2-8-2-8-2-8-2-8
rhyme scheme: abbacddceff
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
A reflection on the annual ritual of watching your students move forward with their lives.
Written with 2025’s GloProWriMo Day 22 prompt in mind:
Write a poem about something you’ve done – whether it’s music lessons, or playing soccer, crocheting, or fishing, or learning how to change a tyre – that gave you a kind of satisfaction, and perhaps still does.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
legalised punctures
the symbols of
burnt stars
branded flesh and
bloodied devices
gut percussion
a pound of flesh
punctuated
without protection
pound
pound
pound
those punctilios
until they come around
where bodies of evidence
may no longer be found
everything is legitimate
Shared with dVerse Poetics – unpunctuated and inspired by the (as yet unwatched) Bodies of Evidence documentary
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Very much inspired and paraphrased from this SubStack post by Megan Falley about shifting attention
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Another poem based on Adrift in the South by Xiao Hai in Granta magazine, detailing the life of migrant labour in China. I managed to suitably condense this one into just five stanzas!
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
1994ever 