Author: shaun tenzenmen

Australasian DIY music specialist and practising poet, amongst other things

Pinky Shake – 7th November 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 14 Comments

All these pacts we make
A pinky shake decided
Forever our love
Sung to the mountains and skies
Across the valleys beyond

Whispered words that shine
Pledged to never breach or break
Future in our hands
Temptation will not lead us
Not this time, never again

Obligations shared
For us to build castle walls
Our words are at stake
We know it won’t be easy
That’s when the tough get going

We brokered this deal
To shape a nest of relief
Sometimes days are dull
For the warmth, we must maintain
A flexible foundation

Let us bend in sync
The winds of change will blow through
We’ll not break this bond
Pick you up when you stumble
Fend off discontent and pain

All these pacts we make
Pledge to never breach or break
Our words are at stake
For the warmth, we must maintain
Fend off discontent and pain

A garland tanka shared with Tanka Tuesday using synonyms for promise and comfort

A Box Full Of Cubans – 6th November 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 6 Comments

Blue and red both arm an expansion
Desperate to maintain and hide inside
Sighs at sixty years of sanction
When a box of darkness opens wide

Despite the embargo, we’ll flip this lid
Set fire to watch the ashes emerge
Behind the masks the ravaged skins did
Weave around the desire to purge

So let’s puff away and soak in glory
The winners crush dust into the floor
The fat man claims to make the story
And blockade away forever more

Written for an AllPoetry.com assonance assignment and using the Poets and Storytellers United prompt – “a box full of darkness”, as well as The Sunday Whirl Wordle #679 – sighs fire flip ravaged blue floor emerge masks ashes soak skin weave

The Silo – 5th November 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

There were many that day
Was it day? Is it night now?
Here, it’s not possible to tell
Time has lost all its meaning

We lined up waiting for the interview
It has been a long wait
But I will review all that came to pass
It was obvious, even as I said it
It took me a long time to figure it out
The master told me that messages were sent
But I had been slow to realise

Later, we all gathered round
And I wasn’t the only one
Most of us facing the review agreed
That we all took too long to realise
Then we returned to the silo
Perhaps one day, we can try again

A time-disorientated play on a life’s review in The Matrix or Heaven.

A Mad Man Made Man – 2nd November 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 7 Comments

A
made man
comes apart,
seams unravelling
Bolts become unscrewed;
Filled full of dust and dirt
Electrical kickstarter
Blood pumped in from poison vials,
Eyes barely open to see machines
Clinging to this life for a madman’s dreams

Confusion reigns in this laboratory
there seems to be something in the air;
A sadness amongst the madness
Who is the real madman here?
A sigh, a final breath;
Living forever
is a fool’s game
Give it up
This dream?
Dead

Shared with No Theme Thursday and the attached picture prompt

Castle Contrarian – 29th October 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

Run away from the zeitgeist
I don’t know what’s going on
And again once it’s caught up
It’s a lifetime on the run

Hiding under self-made shelter
Cocooned in homegrown truth
It’s no conspiracy theory
Or trappings of religious youth

Bored by irrelevant gossip
A talk show in every pub
The drawbridge to my castle
Bars entry into my club

Still sympathetic to the circles
Of a society I’m sat outside
Deliberately contrarian
But sharing my space to hide

Full of personal contradictions
To care and not to care
I don’t know what I’m doing here
Or what you’re doing there

I’m happy inside my castle, in my head, in my home. I welcome others in, especially in sympathy/empathy, but there will always be a time when I will usher them back out in order to be alone again.