There’s No Opting Out – 2nd October 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

You are a public class that everyone audits
Each slice of you remains a lesson
The observer is busy making behaviour edits
The observed will leave their impression

Respect the gaze of children, they know how to see
We are teaching by our existence
Tomorrow’s normal is today’s complacency
A museum of small acts insistence

There’s no opting out of your own exhibition
Everyone browses for their own cues
Influence is ambient, becomes tradition
Good or bad, it somehow all accrues

Another write inspired by a David Elikwu newsletter.

To The Grim Shores – 1st October 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 18 Comments 
As the language of the night settles in,
   with a candle raised to the sky.
The way ahead is slippery and sodden
   —a vanishing point, a future sigh.

A gloved hand held, we wend our way
   to the rolling river, quiet and moody.
The conspiring trees shake their bones
   at your subtle ceramic beauty.

Your trusting eyes make no plea
   as you submerge under the darkened depths.
Your silken arms are the last I see,
   the last twinkling that the moon protects.

I walk with you, across the many bridges
   that lead us out to the troubled seas.
I’ll wait for you on the silent shore,
   framed in judgement by those ageless trees.

Written for dVerse Poetics and inspired by the paintings of John Atkinson Grimshaw, whom I’d never heard of before, but can see very clearly an England that I feel very familiar with. While the use of light in the paintings is somewhat seductive, I couldn’t help but let the darkness in with a story of forbidden love ending in quiet tragedy.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Let Virtue Shine Bright

Darkness lies on either side
The lamp shines until its fuel is spent
As should your truth, justice and self-control
Until your light faces its own descent

Deadhead in Woolworths – 30th September 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Yeah, yeah – it was me, not you,
  but I still blame you.
I toiled until my elbows gave way.

I toiled for myself

  and you benefited from all I gave.
You only saw another drone.

I shouldn’t have been surprised

  that the corporate mentality kicked in.
Here where dollars reign.

Demoted to self-service checkout,
  I carved a new little kingdom

where I let thieves get away.


Fuck with me, I’ll fuck with you.

  I’ll never go back, never see your face again.

Content that you’re just someone else’s drone.

“Treat people like shit, and that’s what you get” is the phrase that comes to mind with this poem, which I know from the song Deadhead by Crass. Woolworths is where these events took place. Hence the title.

Shared with an AllPoetry contest:
Write about that ONE place you never want to go back to. Only ONE place. Be specific!

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

You Can’t Touch Me

Your body can be victimised
Philosophy protects your mind
If freedom can be visualised
Then it’s freedom you will find

Living Bonds – 29th September 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 3 Comments

value is not cash

in friendship, debts breathe and grow

ledgers have no heart

A simple haiku suggesting that the best friendships are imbalanced perfectly, by giving more than receiving, inspired by a David Elikwu newsletter.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Your Actual Needs Are Small

Every day of success gathers more
You never know the feeling of having it all
Will you remember your beginnings
And that your actual needs are small?

Your Watson – 28th September 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

What do you think, as the pen is poised?
Is the thought already fully formed?
Ideas get tested before being employed
Many of which can be ignored

Sometimes the sounds make little sense
The intelligent audience will reject
Every other idea must be dispensed
Until all the logic is found perfect

Let the paper test all your doubt
Brevity of words makes clear the reward
Most everything else can be crossed out
What’s left, highlighted and underscored

Inspired by a David Elikwu newsletter, where he discusses how Sherlock Holmes used Watson as a sounding board, much like many other famous people, testing ideas. So the writer tests their ideas on the page, in search of something meaningful.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

You Hold The Trump Card

Do you look at the day ahead and despair?
We could look at it and simply rejoice
What we’ve been granted is usable and fair
Your response is decided by your choice

Your Faith And Your Soul – 27th September 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 3 Comments

Walking in circles under the dripping canopy’s leaves,
repeating a sentence someone gave him at twenty.
Terrorise your enemies.

The world moved on while he stood still,
saluting the red circle of the sun.
Stand your ground.

Voices called his name from the edge of the trees,
but every kindness sounded like a trick.
Never surrender.

Counting the years by how many ghosts went silent,
the mission remained loud in his head.
Hold the line.

Set to starve than admit the hunger was pointless,
rather be feared than feel foolish.
Show no retreat.

It is not truth that convinces him,
but a formal command,
stepping out of the past.
“Lay down your arms.”

So, Onoda walks out of the jungle at last,
wearing three decades of orders as his only story.
His identity.

Hiroo Onoda was the last Japanese soldier to surrender, 29 years after the Second World War ended. He survived in the jungles of the Philippines, not believing that the war was over and only came out of hiding on his insistence that his commanding officer issued the order to stand down.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

What Will Prosperity Reveal?

It won’t matter how good things get
If your mind is primed for panic
When there’s even more to lose
You’ll be prone to feeling manic

Still Frozen – 26th September 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 21 Comments 
The dew isn't frozen for a change,
each step leaves a dark hole,
a trail to my soggy shoes.

Once again,
I stand at the old wooden shed door
with a bent, rusty key
that no longer turns the stuck lock.

It would be easy to break in.

Inside, 
the axe, 
the scythe, 
the shears, 
all in need of sharpening.

I'm not ready yet.

Written for Poets and Storytellers #246 – spring. Look at that. I actually wrote a seasonal poem.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

What Time Off Is For

Enjoy your relaxation like a poet
Relaxed but observing the world around
What is your calling? Do you know it?
Endless TV is not freedom found

When God Is Satisfied – 25th September 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 9 Comments 
Do you see this home I made,
  as well, the streets, houses and moon?
You are just a game I play,
  ceasing to exist very soon.

Once out of sight, out of mind;
  mere puppets dancing on my strings;
Life is illusion, you'll find
  no magic with what freedom brings.

I will create the rainbows
  or thunder as my mood dictates;
My rules, nobody knows,
  along with all your future fates.

If you deign to interfere
  I'll fill you full of distraction;
Better say your prayers right here
  and give us both satisfaction.

This poem is based on the four stanzas of Soliloquy of the Solipsist by Sylvia Plath.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

The Vulnerability Of Dependence

Everyone is a slave to something
Coffee, comfort, approval or routines
Test your dependencies before they are too great
And find out what freedom means

The Long Arrival – 24th September 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 28 Comments 
Leaving dusty footprints on Texan soil,
     a drifting unemployed taxi driver.
     Stumbling through nights of doubt,
     towards seedy lighthouses that shone brightest.

He scratched her name on napkins, in margins,
     on the fogged glass of Greyhounds—
     rehearsing a love that would never be more
     than a monologue for his mirrors.

Believing the act would be a sentence,
     six shots, one ricocheted love letter,
     so that on his arrival, 
     history might remember him
     as something other than a ghost.

Shared with dVerse Poetics: Pilgrimage and reflecting on the story of John Hinckley Jr.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

It Could Happen To You

Is there anything in life that fortune
won’t knock off it’s high hourse if it pleases?
Prepare your mind for the possibilities
Of flood, fire, famine and diseases

A Fit Of Sulks – 23rd September 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 14 Comments 
A bully found within—
always the one wronged,
going to great lengths
to communicate your offence
at things so trivial.

You are the ironic
definition of the humdudgeon!

Almost obsolete in the dictionary
and modern use.
When you were needed most,
you were gone.

Shared with dVerse Quadrille #256 – ho-hum

From Deepseek:

Humdudgeon is a compound of hum and dudgeon.
Hum comes from Middle English hummen (to hum, buzz, drone), probably imitative in origin. Here it carries the sense of “humbug”—a hoax or imposition.
Dudgeon means a feeling of deep offence or resentment—as in the phrase “in high dudgeon” (furiously indignant). Its ultimate origin is uncertain, but it may come from the English dudgen (something worthless) or Italian aduggiare (to overshadow).

So the word combines the idea of something false or hollow (hum) with righteous indignation (dudgeon)—a fake grievance, an invented illness, a fuss over nothing.

One modern commentator noted the irony: at a time when taking offence seems increasingly popular, the near-obsolescence of humdudgeon—a word for needless offence—is “a bit odd”.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

The Most Secure Fortress

When ruling reason rallies and relies on itself
The mind free from passions is impenetrable
There’s no more secure place of refuge
When unconscious behaviour becomes exceptional