Obsolete Wonder – 19th December 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 24 Comments

Shared with W3 #190 – quoting Wordsworth*

The world clicks by in screens of graphic gain,
each hour refined for either profit, loss, or trend.
Praising the sharpest tools ever made to explain,
yet wondering why these days refuse to bend.

I walk beneath the wires and silent trees
and feel a hunger numbers cannot feed.
Our minds seem full of malaise and disease,
which is surely something none of us need.

I’d trade this clever age, so sure it’s new,
to be a Pagan suckled in a creed outworn*,
to hear a god breathe as the wind blows through,
and see the ocean settle for a new dawn.

These times, obsolete is the wonder, not belief;
The myth awakes where certainty may sleep.

You Can’t See Me When I Close My Eyes – 17th December 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 25 Comments

Shared with dVerse Quadrille #238 – hibernate.
The initial line is taken from Jae Rose’s poem ‘Coax’.

It is hard to
live fully above ground.
The nail that sticks
up gets hammered down.

Protected in silent procrastination
like a seasonal hibernation,
sleeping through until cessation.

When things settle down
I’ll return once more,
But until then, I’m
waiting for the thaw.

Belly Up – 16th December 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 22 Comments

The belly up dog
rolls in recognition;

celebrating the leash,
revelling in submission.

In a democratic house,

its institutions sing

“we are free” until
it doesn’t mean anything.

The belly up dog

doesn’t need to be told

he’s free to roam

the lonely nights of cold.

Inspired by a couple of quotes:

we now live in an era when the slaves celebrate their slavery.

Nick Tosches


Democracy is a con game. It’s a word invented to placate people to make them accept a given institution. All institutions sing, ‘We are free.’ The minute you hear ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’, watch out because in a truly free nation, no one has to tell you you’re free.


Jacque Fresco

Plateau – 15th December 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

What is a tableau?
Quick searching Google
brought me a surprise;
expecting paintings,
all I got was graphs
exploring data.

So the world has changed,
words have new meanings.
I wanted pictures
frozen at a time
of great importance,
to inspire a write.

Shared with dVerse MTB – tableau.
I know what a tableau is but went searching for something in particular to write about. I guess, in one way, I found it.

Honesty On Stage – 14th December 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 9 Comments

Dreams

shape reality.

Stories need people,

the weavers of words;

the satisfaction with joyous ending?

Rising curtains, actors playing people, real

royalty and fakers, forging fortune for applause.

Bright lights shine, eyes glittery, all silvery struck.

So, stage mirrors life stories, untold, often repeated, become

so
real?

The
mask,
the
role,
mask
the
real.

So

become repeated often, untold stories. Life mirrors stage, so

struck silvery, all glittery eyes shine, lights bright;

applause for fortune forging fakers and royalty!

Real people playing actors? Curtains rising,

ending joyous with satisfaction. The

words of weavers. The

people need stories.

Reality shapes

dreams.

What a headache! A palindrome poem that is almost a double etheree. I gave up at the tenth line and had to enlist AI to give me ideas to connect the two etherees. It kinda works. I think the theme here is apparent but due to the structure of the palindrome, the specifics are a little bit lost. Does the formatting help or hinder?
This poem was prompt #10 for the Chimeric Poetry Scavenger Hunt, which I’m slowly working my way through. No more palindromes for me!

The Moral Dirt – 13th December 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 4 Comments

Inspired by a short piece by Samuel Butler in the Penguin Book of Lies. A rich source of inspiration!

Cherry picking the words of god
to suit man’s selfish needs;
The lowest forms twist their meaning
until the lie succeeds;

Imitators of good virtue
are such great pretenders;
The sweetest mouth is shameful with
every lie it renders;

As it passes into the ears,
the falsehood becomes true;
Before we die, the moral dirt
must be ingested too.

Humbled – 12th December 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 18 Comments

Made of smokestacks and trusses,
interlocking and rectilinear;
Naves are wandering the new brick streets,
humbled by shelter, by pressure.

Solidarity in civic identity,
iron tasted on the tongue;
Dwarfed by an engineered order,
humbled by progress, by claustrophobia.

Such industry held up on hills,
dormitories are bent and sooty brown;
Anonymous postures pause conversations,
humbled by pride, by fatigue.

Shared with W3 #189 – picture prompt