Mind Your Step – 7th May 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen

in your head
in your mind

mind full of thought
mindful of thoughts

thoughts that make no sense
thoughts unexpected

unexpected and anxious
unexpected and rising

rising day after day
rising repeated

repeated becomes practised
repeated again and again

again it’s been learned
again this vicious circle

circle ever decreasing
circle takes the square

square it all up at the end
square off with yourself

yourself your significant other
yourself true to form

form from your comprehension
form from understanding

understanding what’s real
understanding your truth

truth from facts
truth beats the lies

lies were your past
lies that you remember

remember those dark days
remember searching, tentative

tentative feet forward
tentative outstretched hands

hands over fist
hands pulling taut

taut the tendon deep
taut to hold together

together you and yours
together finding the way

way down was then
way to go now found

found yourself a ribbon
found yourself a hold

hold on to the guardrails
hold on to the future

future never feared
future finds your step

step into the light
step out of the darkness

darkness
light

Shared with What Do You See #287 and inspired by this post by Nilofer Neubert using the Blitz form, which has this stack of rules:
Line 1 should be one short phrase or image (like “build a boat”)
Line 2 should be another short phrase or image using the same first word as the first word in Line 1 (something like “build a house”)
Lines 3 and 4 should be short phrases or images using the last word of Line 2 as their first words (so Line 3 might be “house for sale” and Line 4 might be “house for rent”)
Lines 5 and 6 should be short phrases or images using the last word of Line 4 as their first words, and so on until you’ve made it through 48 lines
Line 49 should be the last word of Line 48
Line 50 should be the last word of Line 47
The title of the poem should be three words long and follow this format: (first word of Line 3) (preposition or conjunction) (first word of line 47)
There should be no punctuation

8th Aug 2025 – Shared with Poets and Storytellers United #189

45 thoughts on “Mind Your Step – 7th May 2025”

    1. Thanks Sadje – I’m glad someone listened to it – that took me a rushed couple of hours of fiddling around to produce. It seems that despite adding audio to my posts not many people are listening to them.

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      1. Well…I try to listen to all the audio posts in the background, but I get far, far behind. Nice when a song prompts me to get up and dance for three minutes; not so nice when people expect their audience to sit listening for hours to what they’d rather print off and be able to read in ten minutes. I think it’s good to put the sound out there because so many people find it harder to read every year. I’d give thanks for readers’ sake if more of them *can* read rather than listen. If we have 5000 readers and only 5 are blind, or even suffering from eyestrain, that’s a good thing!

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  2. Nicely written
    can you guide me how to actually write these types of blitz poems
    what exactly is the main formula coz i read similar type of poem before but i didn’t understand how to convey feelings in this style

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    1. Thanks 🙏

      The formula (or rules) are at the end of the post. It’s less complicated than it looks but a little awkward to execute as lines are meant to be kept short.

      Give it a go!

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  4. A new form to me, which I might try some time soon. I like the way you played around with not just words but phrases and thoughts, Shaun, and it was great to hear your voice. The repetition is so effective in this poem. I especially liked the subtlety of ‘mind full of thought / mindful of thoughts’.

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    1. Thanks Kim, as with many people, I don’t like the sound of my own voice! I was in a bit of hurry to get this done too and there’s a few things I would change a little. Time is not on my side to get back to revisit this at the moment though.

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  5. the audio is truly disturbing – you’ve captured the epitome of thought compression streaming to the frayed ribbon end

    p.s. interesting choice of poetry style given that we are remembering 80 years of peace in Europe after the Blitz! Thanks for laying out the rules – It’s evidently much harder to do than it appears

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    1. Thanks Laura and thanks for giving it a listen too. Listening again today I don’t think I quite captured the calm and resolution that is introduced in the last third of the poem.

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  6. The audio really added for me, it was a bit disturbing, but still hypnotic in a way that added to the poem… I could really see this as a video with some nice stills…. this was an interesting form that we should do someday as a prompt.

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  11. Pingback: WDYS # 287- A roundup post – Keep it alive

  14. understanding what’s realunderstanding your truth The lines standing out for me in this intriguing poemI loved the echo in in audio It made it quite eerie

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  18. Hey…you’re an Aussie. (listened to your audio) Don’t tell me It’s all in your head:)
    I enjoyed your poem. Well done with this complicated Blitz Form. No more dancing in the dark cobber…step into the light.

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