Through The Nine Circles – 10th October 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen

Written for the NaPoWriMo day 13 prompt (from back in April):
Donald Justice invented a form that has six-line stanzas that use lines of twelve syllables, and while they don’t use rhyme, they repeat end words. Specifically, the second and fourth lines of each stanza repeat an end-word or syllable; the fifth and sixth lines also repeat their end-word or syllable.
This poem uses for inspiration and some paraphrasing of a piece, Penumbra, by Sunra Rainz here, along with some key lines from other poems

1 – from Elongated Ellipsis by Sanaa
2 – from Be Careful Who You S(c)hpritz by Dwight Roth
3 – from Penumbra by Sunra Rainz
4 – from What the Rain Brings by Ariel Kings

Shared with dVerse OLN #393

A small town thinker where days arrive dressed as debts1;
drowning in the shallow end of dirty waters
and he who chases two rabbits catches neither;
it’s been this way since we arose from those waters;
Letting your words fly loosely, they never come back2,
spinning out on a spider’s web from front to back.

But within lies an unmuttering of whispers3,
embalmed and buried until called for by demons;
they’ve paid the rent and brought a suitcase of gloom4,
unbalanced, unsure if they’re angels or demons;
The shadow self whoops its way under softer skin,
The bottom of the bottle rendering the skin.

Deader longer than anyone can remember
secrets are no longer kept so close to the heart;
new worlds will be sung alive by an old guitar
and a choir of old vultures pecking at the heart;
The waters rise again, to which we must return;
When they recede once more, we shall never return.

13 thoughts on “Through The Nine Circles – 10th October 2025”

  1. HI Shaun, I’m glad my poem inspired you. Would you mind italicising the phrases you used from my poem or quoting them below please? To avoid any confusion as to which bits you’ve used exactly. Thank you.

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  2. Shaun, a beauty of what I will call a poetry collage. Those things take time to get just right, and then you add in a form and you’ve got a project. Thank you for sharing with OLN. I added the link in Mr. Linky because I saw it in the notifications but it wasn’t showing up. That’s 3 WP glitches like that tonight. It’s probably Friday in your part of the world by now. Happy Friday!

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  3. Nicely done, Shaun! I really like the darkness of these lines:

    ‘But within lies and unmuttering of whispers,
    embalmed and buried until called for by demons’,

    and the phrase ‘a suitcase of gloom’.

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  4. A great poem, Shaun. Words do have great effect on those around us. I loved the “vultures pecking at the heart”. Such a great image. Thank you for referencing me in your poem. I am glad my poem inspired you.

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