Month: March 2022

I Don’t Care About You – 31st March 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

The biggest news story in the world
Feels like a stunt for clicks and views
A cynical celebrity advertisement
Where all concerned stand to lose

A slap heard around the world
Is irrelevant to anything we do
Don’t waste time on whats and whys
When all you hear can’t be true

Your lives are as meaningless as mine
We are all just blood and bones
Our status is an illusion we live
Our eternity all spent under stones

My opinions as meaningless as yours
Why bother to waste this breath?
Of many a lesson ever learned
We win no awards with our death

6th Apr 2024 – Submitted to RagTag Daily Prompt

If you are lonely when you are alone, you are in bad company.

Jean Paul Sartre

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that Cap comes and gives me head rubs throughout the day. He’s not a lap cat at all so I’ll take what I can get.

Sit Quietly – 30th March 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Hold still, slow down all thoughts
Soften eyes and ears
A mind racing around all sports
Bends on one’s fears

Sit quietly, letting contentment in
Soften ears and eyes
Craziness begone, deep breathing begin
Hear the word of the wise

Don’t be a coward. Have the courage to be afraid.

Günter Anders

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to have some smart students who make me laugh a lot and bring me great joy when they want to learn.

The Sacrificed Citizens – 29th March 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Once there were rules to the war games
A gentleman’s game of death and glory
Now our principles attend more barbaric aims
And the winners may rewrite the story

No matter what you’ve done up to this point, you better still be a student. If you’re not still learning, you’re already dying.

from Farnam Street blog

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the weird tree/plant that was growing next to our garage. It blew down in the storm last night. It should regrow but will take a couple of years to get as big again.

Standing In Line With The Dead – 28th March 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Hangry moon rising, tummy rumble thunder
Blood sugar doldrums, the thought of going under
A credit card expired, what’s there to do?
An angel walks forward coming to the rescue
Crisis averted, silent applause fills mad hearts
Order is restored and the queue soon restarts
Grateful is the world for random kindly acts
When queueing with the dead
– and them’s the facts!

Being a contrarian in the face of bat shit insanity is a good thing.

Caitlin Johnstone

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to see the baby cow dancing and playing in the field opposite.

The Hexagrams – 27th March 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

*Truth, as terrible as death
Yet harder to find*
Is there any proof we exist
Beyond what’s in our mind?
Dark yin and brilliant yang
Blind faith in blind fate
As good as any other man
With enough patience to wait

*from (and inspired by) ‘The Man in The High Castle’ by Philip K Dick

Today, we’re being suffocated by abundance.

Louis Pereira

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to cut the grass in the cooler morning air this morning.

I Found What I Was Looking For – 26th March 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Are you too, still searching
Looking to bring love to you?
All the honey-kissed lips
And healing fingertips
Those dreams never came true

I struggled and questioned
Unsure of each step taken
Then I realised
One day surprised
From my dreams, I am awaken

My search now over
And my advice pro bono
Trust in your yearning
Never stop learning
Until you know what you don’t know

Something put that damn U2 song in my head so I started playing with some of its words, and made one up to fit. The limerick was accidental and appropriate.

The only external reality that matters is the misery of the human condition.

John Calder, The Philosophy of Samuel Beckett

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for my younger self for at least keeping some diaries. I was never fastidious about it but it’s amazing to look back at what I was doing and thinking.

Greene On Keats – 25th March 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

This constant need for certainty
Is the greatest disease you may face
Creative power comes from negative capability
Mysteries are to endure and even embrace

Paraphrased, but almost word for word, Robert Greene talking about Keats.

The need for certainty is the greatest disease the mind faces.

Robert Greene

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for Art to go book shopping in Chiang Mai for me and get me five music-related books. I’ll keep them at Utopia.

Walk It – 24th March 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

Go for a walk, clear out the cobwebs
Dust off those shoes, double up on socks
Blow away at the clouds of fog
Surrounding this bridge of your mental blocks

Take in the scene, breathe deep the air
Fill in those lungs with deep gulps of joy
Think about nothing, dream bigger dreams
Walk it all out, oh boy oh boy!

24th Mar 2023 – I seem to remember enjoying going for walks with Bruno, getting all dusty yet invigorated. These polluted days are not the best though. Come on rainy season! Getting Covid in July really set me back with walking and exercise though.

We live on an island surrounded by a sea of ignorance. As our island of knowledge grows, so does the shore of ignorance.

John Archibald Wheeler

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for my old tired body, still growing and learning new things.

The Week That Was – 13th May 1979

Other World – 23rd March 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Grass still green, succoured by recent rain
Sprouting from the dusty clay
Freshly unfurled frangipanis
Bursting brilliant, reflecting sunlight under your chin
The silent hills, jungle-covered green and khaki
Teems with little lives unseen
Sun smothers, bleaching the air white
The living and the inanimate
Thirsting for the next sunset
In the starlit night
Your body wears a shirt of humid air
Breathe deep the day gone
As fireflies pulsating dance
Attracts the eyes of confused dogs

Man is not a rational animal, he is a rationalising animal.

Robert Heinlein

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that we finally got some rain overnight. Temperature is better and my garden can enjoy the water.

A Cola – 22nd March 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

A life born of consumption
My guts bubble in excitement
My body has these nightmares
Of a past now forgotten
Perhaps returned and crushed
Repurposed and reused
When you look inside
I’ll pop bubbles on your nose
Soon my existence will be elsewhere
As another form of recycling
No more thoughts

Inspired by the ‘Everything Is Alive‘ podcast. Won’t someone please think of the cola!?

Unlucky is the man who is born with great expectations and who finds nothing in life quite up to the mark.

John Burroughts

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to Amy’s mum who cares and does little bits and pieces around the garden.