Author: shaun tenzenmen

Australasian DIY music specialist and practising poet, amongst other things

One Man’s Lunch – 10th May 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

With all our faculties,
some stronger and more keen;
employ these abilities
to stand up and be seen.

Mould our worlds by hand,
all of it fundamental;
so precious and planned,
all our matters are vital.

Whether poison or beauty,
to build or to destroy;
it’s our control of duty,
our reason to employ.

With our imagination,
to enjoy collaboration
for our world’s construction
and sanity’s preservation.

Inspired and paraphrased from the Red Hand Files #315

Mind Your Step – 7th May 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 45 Comments

in your head
in your mind

mind full of thought
mindful of thoughts

thoughts that make no sense
thoughts unexpected

unexpected and anxious
unexpected and rising

rising day after day
rising repeated

repeated becomes practised
repeated again and again

again it’s been learned
again this vicious circle

circle ever decreasing
circle takes the square

square it all up at the end
square off with yourself

yourself your significant other
yourself true to form

form from your comprehension
form from understanding

understanding what’s real
understanding your truth

truth from facts
truth beats the lies

lies were your past
lies that you remember

remember those dark days
remember searching, tentative

tentative feet forward
tentative outstretched hands

hands over fist
hands pulling taut

taut the tendon deep
taut to hold together

together you and yours
together finding the way

way down was then
way to go now found

found yourself a ribbon
found yourself a hold

hold on to the guardrails
hold on to the future

future never feared
future finds your step

step into the light
step out of the darkness

darkness
light

Shared with What Do You See #287 and inspired by this post by Nilofer Neubert using the Blitz form, which has this stack of rules:
Line 1 should be one short phrase or image (like “build a boat”)
Line 2 should be another short phrase or image using the same first word as the first word in Line 1 (something like “build a house”)
Lines 3 and 4 should be short phrases or images using the last word of Line 2 as their first words (so Line 3 might be “house for sale” and Line 4 might be “house for rent”)
Lines 5 and 6 should be short phrases or images using the last word of Line 4 as their first words, and so on until you’ve made it through 48 lines
Line 49 should be the last word of Line 48
Line 50 should be the last word of Line 47
The title of the poem should be three words long and follow this format: (first word of Line 3) (preposition or conjunction) (first word of line 47)
There should be no punctuation

8th Aug 2025 – Shared with Poets and Storytellers United #189

Guardian Angels – 5th May 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 3 Comments


How long have you been watching, knowing all the truths?
Allowing the story to unfold before deciding on intervention
Blacking out the sunlight so we make no foolish moves
The most pleasant form of submission, freedom from intention

A curious utopia makes idle minds become soon busy
Unable to trust what we cannot see and comprehend
The possibilities sent our philosophies all a-dizzy
Is the peace you guarantee the action of a friend?

As omnipotent overlords what purpose is your desire?
To defuse our will for independence over the ages
Or quiet the individual need to reach on ever higher
While our intellectual enlightenment engages

Once your face revealed, the body will weep or faint
Soon accepting the devil may be in the detail
The pursuit of pleasure left little time for complaint
And a peaceful coexistence came to prevail

The Guardian Angels and correct use of force
Countered suffering, mandated and employed
That gave some meaning the plebs could endorse
To avert their eyes from the beckoning void

Inspired by the first half of Arthur C Clarke’s Childhood’s End.
27th Nov 2025 – Shared with Esther Chilton Writing Prompt – angel

Love Lies – 3rd May 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 7 Comments

Venus is the odd one out,

rotates clockwise about its axis;

a western sky sunrise!

~ Hellish heat and truly toxic ~

Long, lazy days where

time tests with great temptations

and love lies in rebellion.

A Complex Alliterisen about Venus (planet and God) shared with dVerse MTB

Charlie Zero The Poet Music picks & Reviews #20 and my quick thoughts:

Mopcut – Pretty interesting glitchy electronica in places. Would’ve appealed to me about 20 years ago.

The Vegetable Orchestra – It feels a little like artists these days need some kind of angle. The results here don’t really float my boat but I can understand folks being into and appealing, ‘hey you gotta this album made with vegetables’

MADMADMAD – This is pretty cool and fun. Could definitely see myself enjoying this in a dingy warehouse on an industrial estate somewhere with plenty of neon and flashing lights.

CLD.RĀN – I like the glitch but the other stuff around doesn’t do it much for me. As I’ve said before for this style I usually defer back to Matmos.

PinioL – Ni and PoiL together. Jumped on this from the out. Could’ve been a mess but it’s freaking awesome.

Fragile Joys – 1st May 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

After singing the city song
Of car horns and conversation
I know the place where I belong
To enjoy a quiet vacation

These are tiny, beautiful things
The quietness once forgot
Broken only by the bird that sings
Of my invasion of its spot

And like a child that’s sent to bed
Before the party has even started
Remembering all I did and said
As life happens once I’ve departed

I leave so that I may return
To the shiny, furious noise
Money can’t buy the time to burn
These fleeting, fragile joys

Inspired/paraphrased from the first part of this post at Spinning Visions