Explainer – 13th June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 7 Comments

We’d better make these rhymes easy
to read.
I’m getting tired, I must concede.
You see,
the Hendecastich is a pain
to write.
This nonsense written here, I might
explain
is a first attempt, a challenge
to try.
Now it’s done, let me say goodbye!

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:

Life Is A Battlefield

You must keep watch like a soldier
And do everything commanded
You’ve been stationed at a key post
Do not take this role for granted

Farewell, Students – 12th June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

I’ve been lucky enough to watch you grow
And you’ve changed more than you will ever know
Now’s come the time for me to watch you go
A little sad, but I’m satisfied so.

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:

A Trained Mind Is Better Than Any Script

Wishing to be told what to do
Is no form of training
When pounds to the face come for you
Being ready is better than complaining

The Puncturers – 11th June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 18 Comments 
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:

Just Don’t Make Things Worse

Anger and grief only add more fuel
So stop digging that hole you’re in
Negative energy is the devil’s tool
To ensure you keep on digging

Truffles – 10th June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

Very much inspired and paraphrased from this SubStack post by Megan Falley about shifting attention

Nudge the kaleidoscope

to change the view.


Welcome a rainbow

out of the rain.


Dance through the diagnosis;

make magic of the mundane.


Amongst the mud,

hunt for truffles of joy.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

You Can Do It

If it can be done, it can be done by you
Don’t be jealous, take it as inspiration
Attitude will propel you forward in all that you do
Countering bitterness and desperation

A Precautionary Grace – 9th June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Sweet Juliets
Doe-eyed and delicious
Not for eating
Yet quietly seditious

Ceramic skin
Smoother than porcelain
Fingers get burned
Pushing all the way in

Swaying saplings
Fluttering in the breeze
Blooms unfolding
Inviting with unease

Little sirens
Prettier than peaches
Laid bare, the soul
Where temptation reaches

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Solve Problems Early

Problems gather their strength
To boil your blood
Cross the river at the source
And nip it in the bud

These Iron Nails – 8th June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments
From The Globe and Mail

South, a thirty-hour wound in a steel intestine
digesting human hope in a waking dream.
Stepping into battle armed with a naive heart;
a bitter baptism reveals the city’s scheme.

In a school of unlearning, identities erased,
drifting through days, haunting his own life like a spectre,
a walking zombie in an abyss of solitude.
Salvation binds him to a lifetime debt collector.

Novelty, a fragile perfume of exploitation,
earning a sixpence without seeking the moon.
Youthful energy spent with diminishing returns,
each hour a grain of sand in an unending dune.

Wild lychees will blossom from this barren soil,
a slow transformation as the silkworm will awaken.
Maps appearing within peripheral vision,
unearthed emotions light the roads to be taken.

Scrapheap bound, a common grave for these iron nails;
authentic wildflowers seek the soils of progress.
The family of dreamers was a forest grown overnight,
only to be cleared away by the dawn of their success.

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:

Brick By Boring Brick

This is your life you’re building
Surely things will get in the way
To make your house, the holes get filled in
Minutes to hours, day by day

The Arrangement – 7th June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

*The first line was written by Matthew Maitland (link gone again!) and this poem is somewhat of a response to his.

*I wrote so much and it didn’t matter;

it looked as if nothing had changed.

But I was looking out, instead of in,

which is where everything was rearranged.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Finding The Right Mentors

Your parents may not have been the best
And you didn’t get to choose
Find a mentor who can put to the test
Your aspirations and your views

The Magic Lantern – 6th June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment 
The lantern projects history with missing slides,
  as the indexers make silhouettes lengthen.
Within the beam of light is where truth now resides;
  your own perception becomes impossible to strengthen.

Made of digital blood, one click away from bleach,
  razor blades edit the gospel at the index's altar.
Hypnotised by easy answers is the new way to teach,
  so the cartographers of thought will never falter.

Word of mouth becomes the contraband tech
  and whisper-networks are analogue servers.
Memory is embodied outside the cloud codec
  and exists only for interested observers.

Inspired by Indexing Thoughts at The Harbinger SubStack

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

When To Stick And When To Quit

There are the monoliths – the stickers
And those who constantly quit the line
Then there are those, neither stickers nor quitters
Who know how to change at the right time

Cop In Your Pocket – 5th June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

You’ll never walk alone
with a cop in your pocket,
surveilling from your phone.

Everything uploaded,
now, it’s too late to stop it;
analysed, decoded.

Each decision reviewed
may forfeit your deposit;
so check your attitude.

Black mirrors being held
to ransom for a profit;
so, suitably compelled.

Surveilling for your phone,
with a cop in your pocket.

You’ll never walk alone.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Blow Your Own Nose

The world is unfair; this may be true
Practically speaking, what good is that to you?
Oh woe is you! You still have hands
Get active and do it while you can

The Better Man – 4th June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 20 Comments

Something old

Something new

Something borrowed

Something blue

A sixpence in her shoe

Our friendship before the loan

Your silence after

My twenty dollars

The colour of your absence

Was worth it

Shared with dVerse Poetics. The ‘something borrowed’ line reminded me of the thought, ‘If you lend someone twenty dollars and never see them again, then it was probably worth it.’ I’ve tried to ‘marry’ the two ideas together here.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

This Is What We’re Here For

No one said life was easy – it’s true
No one said that it would be fair
It’s been done before – you can do it too
It’s tradition, and you’re the heir