Month: August 2022

Beat Up – 21st August 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 4 Comments

I love a beat-up book
With edges all creased
More than a clean fresh one
Just released

Passages often underlined
Notes along the margin
Give me a beat-up book
Gotten as a bargain

Well-thumbed and faded
But pages all intact
A beat-up book is the best
And that’s a fact!

19th Jun 2024 – Submitted to Word of the Day Challenge – beat
10 Jul 2024 – Submitted to Writer’s Workshop Prompts – beat

Money is numbers and numbers never end. If it takes money to be happy, your search for happiness will never end.

Bob Marley

Thankstaking – 19th August 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Dump all your bananas on the bull
The real world still exists and it is full
Close your eyes and a utopia appears
Build a new life away from all your fears
Blue lives matter on the merry bus
Turn in, tune out, drop off and join us
Presented to you, a technicolour better way
We’ll get it right this time is what they say
If we can get it right in a world that don’t exist
We can do it in this one if we still persist
A diversion, a revision, a life full of pranks
Let us play together and praise ourselves with thanks

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gather wisdom.

Isaac Asimov

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that I can get the same toothpaste here in Thailand as Australia as it helps my sensitive teeth.

Think Tank Babies – 18th August 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

A motion tabled, around it went
Carried advice for the government
A cache of dollars were duly spent
In pursuit of a father’s dreams
A place in first must be maintained
The remainder must remain remained
And tough decisions are never explained
All must be not what it seems

The crowd is the gathering place of the weakest; true creation is a solitary act.

Charles Bukowski

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the folks around me who provide me with food. I have many options available.

Baby Doll – 17th August 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

Made of plastic with a million others
Boxed and sold to potential mothers
Wrapped in cloth, put in a manger
Idolised when stolen by a stranger
Faith questioned by this random act
The perpetrator is family in fact
Purposes are being slowly revealed
With metaphors that were concealed

Inspired by the first season of TV show The Leftovers

I don’t like work – no man does – but I like what is in the work – the chance to find yourself. Your own reality – for yourself, not for others – what no other man can know. They can only see the mere show and never can tell what it really means.

Joseph Conrad

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for all the things I learn about myself every day with the challenges I face.

The Week That Was – 28th October 1979

Words Of No Inspiration – 16th August 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Not very inspired today
Not sure what to say
And I’ve got no choice
I have to do it anyway

Waiting to rejoin the flow
Got to get up and go
I have to get it done
It’s the truth, I know

Go for broke. Always try and do too much. Dispense with safety nets…Aim for the starrs. Keep grinning…Argue with the world.

Salman Rushdie

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to Nut and Bruno for dropping my cake, bread and breadsticks to me yesterday. I have more food than I can eat at home now!

Fatman report

Explode – 15th August 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Losing control again, temper rising
So close to the edge, not surprising
A burst of anger blew across the room
And settled into despondent gloom

In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.

George Orwell

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to get another long weekend. This semester has gone quickly because of all the holidays.

Short Man Syndrome – 14th August 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Always punching up
Impossible to keep down
Hyperactive bouncing
Like a rabid clown
Always in need of attention
‘Hey, look at me!’
Pushing towards the front
Just so he could see
He’s an annoying bulldog
Doing a stupid dance
What the hell are you doing
Pissing on my pants!?
He’s an annoying bulldog
Doing a stupid dance
Feeling sorry for him
So give him another chance

In a time of destruction, create something: a poem, a parade, a community, a school, a vow, a moral principle; one peaceful moment.

Maxine Hong Kingston

Reincarnate – 13th August 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

As the ground approaches
At an ever-accelerating rate
Recall those bitter words repeated
For others to contemplate
As the halt is impending
Air is forced to evacuate
The authority of heaven
Finally offered no mandate
The expiration of feelings
And thoughts evaporate
A body in a million parts
As the atoms separate
Floating out towards the light
Now there’s no time to be late
Hoping for one last chance
The possibility to reincarnate

Send the message to those who desire to do the same: Speech is free. Lies, you pay for.

Wesley Ball, lawyer at Alex Jones trial

Living In A Story – 12th August 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

We are living in the world of a novel
Where fiction has become all too real
Satisfied within the home of a hovel
And being told how to think and feel

This dystopia goes unrecognised
As we’re distracted with flashing lights
We’re no longer surprised
To find we’ve given up our rights

The man on the screen makes me glad
And the woman, young, beautiful and smooth
Advertise a world that contains no bad
Merely there to comfort and soothe

The Truman Show, The Infinite Jest
Were warnings not to be imitated
But when we put ourselves to the test
That’s exactly what we’ve created

17th May 2024 – Submitted to Ragtag Daily Prompt – Dystopia

People interpret religious texts on the content of their own hearts.

Shane Fang, Facebook comment