Shared with dVerse Poetic Tuesdays – phrases
Phrases Of The Moon – 5th March
Author: shaun tenzenmen
Australasian DIY music specialist and practising poet, amongst other things
on hushed earth
Negative Space – 4th March 2026
This write is based on the idea that Gaza and the Palestinians are not victims of hate, but because evil loves destruction, they are, in fact, the victims of love. The art metaphor was inspired by the Red Hand Files #355
Another beautiful day dawns in Gaza
as he admires his sculptures
victims of his love
Polishing rough edges
after careful, endless siege
Sulphur and ash pigments
splatter the canvas
Crushed concrete and tear gas
the rubble catches the morning sun
in negative spaces
The screams add new textures
to the palette
His meticulous love
crafting masterpieces
signed with an airstrike
His initials salt the fields
The critics gather
viewing from watchtowers
the tenderness in the demolition
the love in every line
In exhibition
his greatest work
entitled ‘Peace’
There are murmurs of great restraint
“the composition is heartbreaking”
Evil enjoys destruction
looks upon its work as art
with a curator’s pride
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Awareness Is Freedom
No slavery is more disgraceful
Than one which is self-imposed
Is it vanity or ignorance
That is keeping your eyes closed?
Let’s Get Gone – 3rd March 2026
Go, go, let’s go, let’s get gone
I know, I know, it will get done
Each dawn ignites the blaze, the spark
Set fire to the fires in the dark
Take me, make me, burn, burn, burn
Now! Now! Now! – There’s much to learn
Written (well after the fact) for the GloPoWriMo 2025 prompt Day 15:
…informed by repetition, simple language, and expressing enthusiasm. They have a sermon/prayer-like quality, and then end with a bang. Your challenge is to write a six-line poem that has these same qualities.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
(Dis)Integration
Stand with the philosopher, or with the mob
We’ve all got a little Jekyll and Hyde
Don’t let contradictions turn into an inside job
Reason with complications must be applied
The Gathering – 2nd March 2026
gathered by blusters
in turbulent rise and fall
crackling electric
~
gathered in shelter
little ants raise umbrellas
grumbling and humbled
Shared with Senhai Saturday #41 picture prompt
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Accurate Self Assessment
Don’t see yourself as more than you are
Or value yourself less than you deserve
Know that you’ve already made it this far
Learn your weaknesses and hold your nerve
No Encores – 1st March 2026
Not a new metaphor by any means but this is my take on the theatre of life. Another poem, belatedly, written for Punam’s dVerse prompt of using opening lines to books as closing lines to poems. This one is “Here is a small fact: You are going to die” from The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.
Act 1, Scene 1:
Scriptless and shoved onstage mid-scene,
hot lights glaring;
applause and judgment circling
for lines never rehearsed.
And yes,
every actor exits,
no matter how fierce their monologue.
A trapdoor beneath every spotlight.
The curtain falls without exception.
Act 1, Scene 2:
Between the acts of this cabaret
there is that strange, unchoreographed stretch;
where the stage lights hum
and the lines grow thin in our hands.
And those unscripted pauses,
those missed cues and improvised lines…?
They are only the bright, temporary glare,
the hush before applause or silence,
Act 2, Scene 1:
and the quiet truth
that for a moment,
against your choosing…
you were here
in the light.
Act 2, Scene 2:
You owe the audience nothing.
You are simply here, for a brief while,
and your time is yours to fill
or to simply endure, as you must.
No obligation,
only the raw,
temporary fact of existence itself.
Act 2, Scene 3:
Birth – a brutal act that makes me wonder, ‘why?’
Finale:
Here is a small fact:
you are going to die.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Where Philosophy Begins
Exercise reason, question your beliefs
Consider everything taken for granted
Take the first steps towards inner peace
With the seeds, just yesterday, planted
Hushes – 28th February 2026
Shared with W3 #200 – alphabet poetry
ash beneath cradle;
drifting
echoes,
fade;
glowing hushes
in jewelled knots
linger,
murmur;
night observations
pale quietly;
ribbons, silvery tin;
under veils,
wispy x-rays
yearning zero.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
When You Lose Control
Reason may have abandoned you
But it was you who had abandoned it
After messing up, what did you do?
Stop! Compose! And just let it sit
Cold Dawn – 27th February 2026
you were my shoulder
i lay my head upon you
where i learned to sleep
daily arrivals
would calm the tremors of my
shaken psychosis
you always wanted
more of me, I would prostrate
blind, oblivious
you were in control
but i woke to the cold dawn
sick of your deceit
the truths that you told
between the lies were only
my own self-abuse
Shared with Tanka Tuesday #53 – rensaku. This poem follows on neatly from yesterday’s, the effects of alcohol still on my mind and foregoing the request of seasonal poetry in the prompt, perhaps. This set of senryu tells an autobiographical story and maybe, just maybe, highlights an emotional spring, an awakening.
The seed of the idea for this poem came from reading Matthew Maitland’s ‘You Want Mythology?’
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Cultivating Indifference Where Others Grow Passion
There are virtues and there are vices
All the indifferents lie in between
Cake is cake, no matter how it slices
Always coverting more is obscene
The Song Sparrow – 26th February 2026
Shared with dVerse Poetics Tuesday – use a classic opening line as an ending line. I chose Charles Bukowski’s Ham On Rye, ‘The first thing I remember is being under something.’ I’m not familiar with the story but I ended up with the idea of Hank waking from his dreams and memories of the night before.
I was terrified, my sweaty hands shaking
a brittle-boned cold heat fever
a pillow headache, suffocating
on a bilious, swollen tongue
thick with last night
smoky lungs, coughing iron filing lumps
of congealed blood
bitter, soggy pills in a pail.
She had shimmered in the weak light
through the foggy frame
whispered strawberries through rotten teeth
my ears are catching golden secrets
often repeated on other nights
in other city lights
As the working men clocked out
boots echoing toward small kitchens
a small brown bird tapped rhythmically
at the window
to bring my relief to an end
and the first thing I remember
is being under something.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
To Each His Own
When you give a piece of your mind, it’s refused
Just as you would do when verbally abused
No one feels better, nothing is achieved
No point to giving, if nothing is received
μακάριος – 25th February 2026
Shared with dVerse Quadrille #242 – hunger
μακάριος (makarios) is the Greek word for blessed.
I would fill my hollow leg
with all the libraries’ best
To wave the wolves away
at my open doors
My fire burns through these leaves
in cultivation of curiosity
Grafting facts, pruning the fat (…)
Blessed are they which do hunger
until elegant sufficiency.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
The Smoke And Dust Of Myth
Castles of sand are soon erased
The peasant buried next to the king
To our emotions we become enslaved
When in reality – it’s all just nothing
Unplug – 24th February 2026
When they need your attention to survive
The best thing to do is chaos-post their demise
Meme the truth until their servers crash
Pirate their textbooks and skip all the ads
Everything is an AI scam, so go wreck ’em
Uninstall your life and then forget ’em
I sometimes use AI to post notes for my poetry on Substack. I ask it to give me a Gen Alpha voice. This poem is inspired by the results of one such exercise, enjoying some of the phrases that it came up with.
27th Feb – Shared with dVerse OLN to get a few more eyes on this one.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
1994ever 