Month: October 2024

Castle Contrarian – 29th October 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

Run away from the zeitgeist
I don’t know what’s going on
And again once it’s caught up
It’s a lifetime on the run

Hiding under self-made shelter
Cocooned in homegrown truth
It’s no conspiracy theory
Or trappings of religious youth

Bored by irrelevant gossip
A talk show in every pub
The drawbridge to my castle
Bars entry into my club

Still sympathetic to the circles
Of a society I’m sat outside
Deliberately contrarian
But sharing my space to hide

Full of personal contradictions
To care and not to care
I don’t know what I’m doing here
Or what you’re doing there

I’m happy inside my castle, in my head, in my home. I welcome others in, especially in sympathy/empathy, but there will always be a time when I will usher them back out in order to be alone again.

D’Arby Manor – 28th October 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

*What does it profit a man that he gains
The whole world but loses his own soul?*
Holding on to the fantasy never explains
What happens when he reaches the goal

To the manor born where his shit don’t stink
He’s forever drunk on the power
*The honey is not as sweet as people think
And the milk’s gone fucking sour*

The empire imagined now rank and rotten
The cancer manifests within
Like everything ever, it’s all soon forgotten
Until the next man chooses to begin

Inspired by the two quotes* from Terence Trent D’Arby that I read in Charles Shaar Murray’s Shots From The Hip. I hated D’Arby’s music but it seems he wasn’t a bad guy.

Ninth House – 27th October 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 33 Comments

Spark-lit dancers under crescent moon
On a hilly heather discotheque
The nighttime gathers the darkened gloom
In the ninth house, strong intuition
Vibrates in sync and to earth attune
A circle storm, a drummers dreaming
Through the night and to the wilds commune
Seen from afar on this pale blue speck
Mother Earth awaits the day’s costume

A 9-syllable Magic 9 shared with dVerse OLN #372 , Poets and Storytellers United – moon and Word of the Day Challenge – costume

The following is a letter from December 28th, 2023, delivered today from the past

Dear FutureMe,

You turn 57 today. This is it, the downhill straight hurtling towards the finish line. Finish with a flurry, why not?

Right now I’m sitting in House, this very familiar spot, looking out into the messy garden here. My body aches from chest and arm exercises but it feels good. Slowly making this machine the way it was supposed to be. A little late….but never too late.

It’s the 28th of December, the kids all had sports day yesterday and it was a blast. So much fun for everyone. Today is a combined Christmas/New Year party day and sure to be fun too. I’ll go back to school soon and stick around for a while before heading home for a five-day break. We talked about going to Chiang Mai which I’d really like to do but being short of cash means we’ll just be at home, spending New Year’s Eve at Mum and Dad’s.

I wonder what life will bring between now and when receiving this letter. I don’t have any definite plans but Amy is planning to go to Turkey and Europe sometime this year and maybe even a quick trip back to Australia.

I’d like to get back to other parts of South East Asia again to meet friends but also need some other motive, like a band tour to tag along with. I also only have April to take a break like that without getting penalised payment at work. Let’s see.

School has been great this year and the connection I feel with my students grows exponentially as I’m introduced to a new batch each year. I really hope I can stay here in this fulfilling role for a good while.

Do something nice for Amy today. And every day.

Let’s go!

Thomas On The Fence – 26th October 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

I don’t know what I believe anymore
The fence gets more comfortable every day
The Holocaust, massacres and genocides
Did they really happen that way?

Is it all a facade, my own Truman Show?
Is the grass actually greener over there?
To discover my world was built on lies
I wish to remain blissfully unaware

Now reality assaults me at every turn
Left guilty and helpless at the pain
Paralysed by the bystander syndrome
The fence is where I choose to remain

Endless Summers – 25th October 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

The endless summer must end
Towards the golden autumn bend
Those long lazy days are sweet
Becoming tedious without retreat

Permanent vacations missing
Excitements of first-time kissing
Anxious to be happy, here and now
Only the winter’s balance allow

So the endless summer ends
Wrapped up tight with fellow friends
Nostalgic and happy to reminisce
Awaiting next year’s sunlit kiss

Inspired by this poetic post at Spinning Visions

Beaten Heart – 24th October 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 14 Comments

And so it must be repeated…

…when the cat scratches at the door wanting to be let in
come, come

And so it must be repeated…

…when screeches of missiles fly overhead
run, run

And so it must be repeated…

…when Mama’s voice soothes the frayed edges
there, there

And so it must be repeated…

…when the fringe comes to the centre
win, win

And so it must be repeated…

…when the image of the devil is hailed as a hero
praise, praise

And so it must be repeated…

…when all the signs of dying breaths disappear
gone, gone

And so it must be repeated…

…when the locks are bolted after sunset
tight, tight

And so it must be repeated…

…when shiny ribbons emerge from the dust
curiouser and curiouser

And so it must be repeated…

…when the tide rises to overwhelm the bloodied sands
rush, rush

And so it must be repeated…

…when the swarm of flies search for new flesh
buzz buzz

And so it must be repeated…

…when the ghoulish fiends build castles on the haunted beach
higher and higher

And so it must be repeated…

…when the night breaks so does the heart
beat

beat

beat

Shared with dVerse Poetics: Of Mantras, Repetita Juvant and The Sunday Whirl Wordle 676 and inspired by this post at Sunra Rainz

The Chase – 22nd October 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

Seduction – theatre in real life
The meeting of illusion and reality
Lost in a hall of mirrors
Reflections prove difficult to see

Kept busy with ritual
The chase, chocolate and flowers
The world is just a stage
Filled with clockwork amateurs

A geometric jerky quickstep
A dance without a guarantee
All those things worried about
And that never came to be

The first two lines are paraphrased from Robert Greene.