Author: shaun tenzenmen
Poet’s Pledge – 22nd January 2025
Written as reward
Benevolent monarch hands
Meaning to illiterate minions
Clinging onto every word
Posted in advertisement
The philosophical sword
Hangs on a single hair
Virtue is written in sunlight
Submitted to AllPoetry’s ‘An Expression of Yourself’ course – Brevity.
With this assignment, I would like you to use metaphor and simile. Focus on the ordinary but make it something more expansive to where your mind cannot find the outer walls of the images.
As an extra idea, I also put this through the N+7 machine and used (mostly) the results from N+14
The Monogram Handlers
Written as rhythm
Benevolent monogram handlers
Medic to immigrant misanthropes
Clinging onto every works
Posted in affair
The philosophical synagogue
Happenings on a single half-life
Vision is written in superlative
Symbiotic Harmony – 21st January 2025
Yesterday will not come back;
very soon tomorrow will take a crack;
There is little else to do in the world except care.
And so today I will bring
together all the ideas to sing
and present them to the whole world to share.
I think I borrowed the first two lines from somewhere but forget where now!
We Don’t Need Another Poem – 20th January 2025
We don’t need another poem
Out of the holidays, out of the seasons
Don’t make the same mistake again
Rolling seas and moonlight are not reasons
To write another one the same
And I wonder when are we ever gonna change
A prompt repeated ’til nothing else remains
We don’t need another poem
We don’t need the same old metaphors
All we want is life beyond
Another simile that simply bores
I know it’s something we can rely on
But there’s got to be better out there
Love and nature, their day is done
Just another castle built in the air
And I wonder when we are ever gonna change
A prompt repeated ’til nothing else remains
We don’t need another poem
We don’t need the same old similes
All we want is life beyond
Another metaphor to simply please
So what do we do with our lives?
We leave only a mark
Will our poem shine like a light
Or end in the dark?
Give it all or nothing
We don’t need another poem
About autumn, Christmas or Halloween
All we want is life beyond
Another set of rhymes already seen
To the tune of We Don’t Need Another Hero. After following a number of poetry prompt blogs for more than 12 months now I found it a little amusing that the same seasonal themes return again.
It’s more an observation than a criticism as I rarely bother to write about seasons specifically, or holidays (especially if they are not relevant to my location). Folks can write about whatever makes them happy. It’s easy to not read something! But I do like to be challenged by the writer to perhaps come at the prompt from a new angle for a change.
26th Sep 2025 – Shared with Poets and Storytellers United – fall
When Incommunicable, Stay This Way – 19th January 2025
Cyanide words in hot Julys
Sticky skin and fireflies
Warm and breezy, pulled outside
Golden hours of calm collide
Sweet and bold youth is claimed
Self-reflections blush ashamed
Come back again once gone astray
Beg the child to stay this way
The war that comes forces change
In adolescence turning strange
The inner child is shutting doors
To light dancing across the floors
To find the love in light tonight
To find the words burning bright
Experiments in consciousness
The honesty earned to confess
To the streets, to the skies
Cyanide words in hot Julys
Inspired and paraphrased by this post at Spinning Visions
19th Feb 2025 – Shared with Moonwashed Weekly Prompt prompted by the word unpretending.
Back To The World – 18th January 2025
In the autumnal airs, crinkled brown
A leaf falling is looking for a place to live
That big old house where we melted cheese
Time told us not to get old, to forgive
Pushing and pulling at different doors
What did the squirrels squeak watching in?
At 4am a split second of thought
Was a sadness that solved everything
Inspired by this post at Tiny Hearts
Crank Callers – 17th January 2025
It’s the new crank call
A bridgeless troll
A keyboard warrior
In private euphoria
It’s a disconnection
On-screen reflection
On enters press
Eternal numbness
It’s a devil’s advocate
A spineless strut
A hit-and-run
Of thoughtless fun
It’s the new crank call
The death of soul
A bridgeless troll
The blackest hole
Inspired and paraphrased from this post at Sphere Letters
Simples – 16th January 2025
Along the path, a muddy slip
Into the mediocre field
Or to sit under a tree for a bit
Until the bloodied knuckle healed
A bite of the hanging fruits
A nap before pulling on
The still-muddied boots
And trek where travellers belong
Looking for the complicated
Blinded all to common sense
The simple to be contemplated
To ensure the least expense
Inspired by this email from The Stoa Letter
Shared with Moonwashed Weekly Prompt – simplicity
Ascension – 15th January 2025
– Dreams fuelled the fire
– – Sacrifices made to inspire
– – – Hard work satisfies desire
– – – – A ladder to heaven
– – – – – Ascending to the stars
– – – – – – Dreams fuelled the fire
– – – – – No stone remains unturned
– – – – Sacrifices made to inspire
– – – A lesson always learned
– – Hard work satisfies desire
– Reward is duly earned
Shared with dVerse’s Quadrille challenge – lift
A Hold On Power – 14th January 2025
The bow is taut, passion tight
Get a shot off! Get a shot off!
Where will the passion land?
A strategic misdirection
Waiting for sweet release
All possibilities in existence
A strategic misdirection
The essence of a passion tight
Before the shot goes off
A strategic misdirection
Watch your head! Mind your head!
Anticipated release
A strategic misdirection
Whilst the bow is taut
Get a shot off! Watch it fire!
Ready your art for war
Spun out from this quote “When the bow is taut it hasn’t been shot yet but the power is there and you can shoot the bow in many different directions, that is the essence of strategy.” which I probably read at The Stoa newsletter.