Author: shaun tenzenmen

Australasian DIY music specialist and practising poet, amongst other things

The Chases – 1st August 2022

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Even amongst all the confusion
Peace can be found in all places
Don’t fall for the constant illusion
That life is only about the chases

The only people I would care to be with now are artists and people who have suffered: those who know what beauty is, and those who know what sorrow is: nobody else interests me.

Oscar Wilde

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to live near enough to shops that cover about 90% of my day-to-day needs.

The Week That Was – 30th September 1979

Own Goal – 31st July 2022

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In a carefully worded statement
Facts were twisted and obscured
The lines crossed were blurred
And both sides eventually demurred
One step forward, two steps back
Holding hands, stepping into a hole
A status quo must be maintained
Until someone scores an own goal

You are a human being, not a human doing.

Ryan Holiday

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that our little car is healthy enough to get us to Chiang Mai and back on a quick turnaround trip. Good health to you, Almy.

The Clown Interrogator – 30th July 2022

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A master manipulator
And a dreadful instigator
Loving the illusion
Causing most confusion
Winning a war of the word
Spinning til the vision is blurred
A clown interrogator
A comforting instigator
The script premeditated
Defences incinerated
Winning is all that matters
For those madder than hatters

You’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behaviour.

J.D. Salinger

A Sound Sleep – 29th July 2022

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A world of wonderland made of many pleasures
A paradise at fingertips, packed with all the treasures
The poverty of the mind, empty of all previous worries
All are sleeping soundly as death towards us hurries

To die at sixty or at eighty is harder than at ten or at thirty. Habituation to life, there’s the rub. For life is a vice – the greatest one of all. Which explains why we have so much difficulty ridding ourselves of it.

Emil Cioran

Problem N – 28th July 2022

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Too much, and thinking is affected
The past is a time still being perfected
Forever with us as a problem somehow
Living in the past instead of the now

Humanity’s state of mind has been distorted by its own bloody history.

Liu Cixin, The Dark Forest

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to be able to enjoy falling asleep to weird interesting music. I love that feeling and sometimes reminds me of listening to John Peel as a teenager or jazz on the radio in the early hours.

Rorts and Payers – 27th July 2022

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Your mindless, meaningless sympathy
Does nothing for those in need
A charitable chunk of donations
Was never seen to stop the bleed
Thoughts and prayers, those empty words
Won’t disturb your life serene
Never stopped to consider your action
Won’t make your dirty hands clean
For every heartstring, there’s a scam
So that we may never be as one
The status quo has removed benevolence
And so nothing ever gets done

A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.

Saul Bellow

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to go to Phayao after school yesterday with a great dinner by the lake as the sun was setting. It was very relaxing.

Turn It Around – 26th July 2022

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Struggling flowers reaching up high
Searching for light in the grey sky
Meekly accepting and no question why
Quiet as a mouse skittering away
Always saying something yet nothing to say
Hard to get and refusing to play
A uniform mask and a poker face
Friendless in this friendly place
Self-excluded from any competitive race
One day to shine, to rise up high
Their blinding light will pierce the sky
Leaving everyone else to wonder why

A tragedy, when a mature mind and a romantic heart are in the same body.

Nizar Qabbani

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the little plants Bruno gave me to see if I can use them to grow a border along our path.

Next Life – 25th July 2022

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Always thinking about the next life
As if that will be the roses you expect
Forget the work, turn down the effort
It’s an internal rejection that you accept

There are moments when one has to choose between living one’s own life, fully, entirely, or dragging out some false, shallow degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands.

Oscar Wilde

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to have a nice early dinner of special food at Amy’s parents, joined by Takky, Nut and Bruno. It was a pleasant evening with lots of chat.

My Hey Hey My My – 23rd July 2022

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A bond recognised on first meeting
A tortured mind on the brink of defeat
Birds of a feather are caught in one net
Unable to understand the reward of retreat

Burning brightly before burning out
A load shot way too premature
Always fighting for what is right
Even when that right is so unsure

Whether as messiah, or as refugee, I can always use what resources I have to try and live a happy life.

Luo Ji, The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin