Shared with dVerse Poetics – headless horseman. I learned a little about Irish folklore while writing this.
Ride Of The Dullahan – 16th October 2025
Author: shaun tenzenmen
Australasian DIY music specialist and practising poet, amongst other things
in search of final harvests
Bus Ride To Bondi – 15th October 2025
Another true story. Shared with dVerse Prosery and to incorporate the following phrase
What will I do there
without my hands upon
your summer face?
from ‘Oh Umbrellas’ by Jeffrey Hermann.
the long bus ride
didn’t feel that way
a sea breeze
of anticipation
your yellow summer
dress highlighting
your tan, smooth skin
and holding my gaze
we hung on to each other
our words and communion
as the world
ran towards the surf
Oh! That was our time!
do you think of that now
on different beaches?
I’ll take the bus ride
one more time
to hold on to you
…but…
what will I do there
without my hands upon
your summer face?
will the memory
be enough
for the long journey home?
In Silence – 14th October 2025
Inspired and paraphrased from the Red Hand Files (again!) #337 and for the GloProWriMo Day 20 prompt:
write a poem informed by musical phrasing or melody that employs some form of soundplay (rhyme, meter, assonance, alliteration). Also, the poem ‘In Evening Air by Theodore Roethke was suggested as an example, and I used the rhyming form, which I found quite pleasant and I think worked very well.
18th Dec 2025 – shared with What’s Going On – Silence
Maybe not a helpful admission,
I’m not sure where I stand these days;
as the ground shifts
exposing each other’s rifts,
it hardens without permission
and uncertainty sings its praise.
The world, beautiful but broken;
my temperament wishes no further harm;
no left or right
or centre might
have, to me, truly spoken
and guided me towards a calm.
My reason searches for the true
to ease the burden of each other’s sorrow;
how easy it is to break,
to forget to give and take;
cautious and careful in what I do
when nothing is certain tomorrow.
Not knowing what I’m talking about;
does the world need to hear that voice?
Listening to all divergent views
makes me ever more confused
so that when still filled with doubt
silence is my choice.
So maybe I just stand with my art,
valuing the deed over the word;
to the fragile flickering spirit bring
a striving for such praise to sing;
At least, it’s a place to start
so that the silence will still be heard.
Charlie Zero The Poet Music picks & Reviews #24 and my quick thoughts:
MockART – Some nice noise here that is keeping my brain active whilst trying to download an upload for my computer so that I can practice guitar again, since something has messed up one of the apps I like to use. Not sure that I would listen to this at any other time though!
Wet Nurse – Fractured and somewhat scary energy here. It’s interesting for sure but a bit too disturbing for me these days. About 20 years ago I would’ve been all over this.
Meira Asher – Interesting punk hip hop that reminds me of some similar weird freaks I met from Japan in the 00s. I like the more rhythmic tracks over the atmospheric ones.
Half Empty Glasshouse – I have their albums already but had forgotten about them. Lots of time changes and genre warping. This is my kinda jam for sure.
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum – ditto
Sostenuto Monotetra – 13th October 2025
Melodies found within the pain
Lift it up, put it down again
Black or white, they will both remain
Hold and sustain, hold and sustain
Things may not go as you had planned
Falling apart and out of hand
Like counting every grain of sand
Keeping on and….keeping on and….
I’m slowly visiting GloPoWriMo prompts from April, as I didn’t follow them at the time. This prompt, from April 1st, was to use a musical term previously unknown to the writer, in my case sostenuto and for extra inspiration, I searched for a form that I hadn’t used before, too – monotetra.
October’s Monologue – 12th October 2025
Shared with Poets and Storytellers United – October. Looks like I kinda wrote another autumn/seasonal poem!
A woodsmoky voice and an air of damp earth,
I am the fight between fire and frost.
A necessary surrender to long days of mirth;
it’s dizzying green confidence slowly lost.
I am taught by the balance of the equinox,
a perfect tipping point towards the dark.
Opposites are revealed in the winding of clocks
to set the woods ablaze with a beautiful spark.
A misunderstood beauty is admired in release;
your confessions lay your architecture bare.
A thousand papery secrets fall with caprice,
then forgotten like a quietly whispered prayer.
At the door, I tell, ‘Rest now, your work is done.’
To love something means you must also let it go.
Do not mourn when the truth cannot be outrun;
just look me in the eye and enjoy my show.
Breakthrough – 11th October 2025
mind wandering
down the road
surrounded
by boredom
the crossroads
a hazy mirage
in the distance
breaking through
to find
the rainbow’s end
on this road
the same road
connections
will synchronise
the crossroads, mind wandering, in the distance, breaking through, a hazy mirage, down the road, the rainbow’s end, by boredom, on this road, surrounded, to find, connections, the same road, will synchronise
a hazy mirage, will synchronise, connections, down the road, the rainbow’s end, mind wandering, in the distance, breaking through, the same road, by boredom, the crossroads, surrounded, on this road, to find
breaking through, on this road, the same road, a hazy mirage, in the distance, by boredom, mind wandering, surrounded, the crossroads, down the road, will synchronise, connections, to find, the rainbow’s end
I wrote this poem in a small space in a notebook and could see that many of the lines still worked together, mixed around, so that’s what I did, perhaps ending up with four poems, though I liked to reiterate the point of looking further on down the road.
Through The Nine Circles – 10th October 2025
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.
October Again – 9th October 2025
You keep on coming back for more
Every year, the change is the same
I shouldn’t be keeping the score
There are no winners, it’s no game
Every time you keep coming back
Has started meaning less and less
And as my skin begins to slack
I’ve stopped caring, I must confess
I’m still wishing for more returns
Even if they’re filled with dread
To just keep on is what one learns
Cos it’s better than being dead
Shared with dVerse – Poetics: October
Dead Horse – 8th October 2025
It’s not up for debate;
incoherent ramblings of a clown.
A so-called head of state
is slowly being shut down.
Among all the heckling and hissing,
he realised he was gonna lose.
He was always moaning and pissing
until exiting the stage to boos.
Shared with dVerse Quadrille #233 – boo
Petition Your Saints – 7th October 2025
All the world a stage for dead actors
their curtains drawn tight
this unearthly fraternity soon factors
once stepped into the light
illuminating with a deeper meaning
to raise a roar transcendent
so petition your saints, convening
a spectacle, exquisite and resplendent.
Inspired and paraphrased by this Red Hand File
1994ever 