Ice Age – 18th October 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen

Shared with dVerse MTB quatern and utilising the phrase ‘what happens when the river stops‘ taken from Günter Grass’s ‘What I write about’.

What happens when the river stops
flowing towards its final form,
to meet dissolution, consumed
in a roiling ghost of gestalt?

Gathering stagnation – is that
what happens when the river stops?
Dammed many times along the way,
it aches to carve a deeper chart;

Breath seeping into the soft soils,
probing for any solve to see
what happens. When the river stops,
frozen skin, a trick of the light,

conceals the hand of destiny
on swirling tides of history.
I find I do not want to know
what happens when the river stops.

23 thoughts on “Ice Age – 18th October 2025”

  3. I like the phrase you took from Grass’s poem, Shaun, and where it took you in your Quatern. I especially love the phrase ‘roiling ghost of gestalt’, the river aching to ‘carve a deeper chart’, and ‘frozen skin, a trick of the light’, Best not to dwell on what will happen.

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  5. I contemplated that line Shaun, but went more personal and yet, after metaphorically contemplating the river frozen – you end with a personal declaration. I used to want to live forever just to see what will happen, but now I find myself nearer to embracing your last line…

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