Don’t Presume, Dr Livingstone – 20th August 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

His words were offered forth as proof
At least not seen as a complete pack of lies
Yet they were also far away from the truth
Leading good men towards their demise

Could those mountains be moved by faith?
Will these altruistic passions endure?
A Primitive paradise, perfectly safe?
The natural harvest of wealth would allure

A buffet of game that may freely roam
All of this awaits the white man to garner
Let the ladies-in-waiting tend to the home
Away from the business of the slaving farmer

Left unsaid the dangers of wild rivers
The seas and mountains of slog beyond
This idyll taken from its caregivers
As famine and war broke their bond

The altruistic found adventure not so easy
Their convictions soon without power
The hero’s book thrown to the Zambezi
Its once fragrant words turned sour

This write is inspired and slightly paraphrased from ‘The accursed lies of David Livingstone’, by Owen Chadwick, which I found in the book ‘The Penguin Book of Lies’.
The phrase “Doctor Livingstone, I presume?” is one of the most famous quotes in exploration history. It was uttered by journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley upon finding Dr. David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika, in present-day Tanzania, on November 10, 1871.

You Remain – 19th August 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 6 Comments

Remembering…

…Your head at my chest,
my jokes you’d like the best,
your sweetish natural odour,
the curve from neck to shoulder,

…Of all the photos I kept,
in all the positions we slept,
your rogue vampire fang,
the nights we’d laugh and hang,

…Little fights that we’d create,
the days we’d take a break,
it’s been so long I can’t explain
why you still remain…

After all, I said goodbye,
the one that made you cry,
you never spoke to me again,
…yet somehow you still remain.

Impossible Right Turn – 18th August 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 7 Comments

Just as I expected, it was I,
overreactions and suspicions drew
up and over all of this,
regarding the realised conclusion,
now, there is nothing new about
energy for it’s own sake, my
young imagination is my own headache.

In the undergrowth, stirring, sometimes
monsters reveal themselves, to be I,
preferring not to bother to think
over the past again, or about you;
somedays I feel better,
somedays I feel the urge to get
it done and dusted, to make it ready
before those I once trusted start to
listen more carefully, finding it to be,
eventually and irrevocably disappointed.

Written for the prompt: write an Acrostic and Golden Shovel combined, found at Chimeric Poetry Scavenger Hunt. The golden shovel lines are taken from the Circus Lupus song ‘Right Turn Clyde’ from the album Solid Brass.

Before I Write A Poem – 17th August 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 3 Comments

Before I write a poem
the world must be on fire.

Before the words flow
I must inhale its smoky snakes.

Before the sword is even poised
I must cough up a bloody lung
into my open palms.

Before the altar, kneeling
I listen and wait
until a message bursts forth,
blooding my ear.

Born into a little life,
a sweet story
or broken bones.

The congregation’s eyes narrow
as I scratch out a sermon,
an epiphany.

…

Really?
That’s it?
All of this?

Inspired and the format recycled from Before The Poem by Lisa Jensen

Énouement – 16th August 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 16 Comments

The past is a room seen from outside,
with a one-way door, immovable;
I tried to whisper across the divide
but my truths then were not provable.

I watched the days wearing thin,
exchanged for worries worn on my brow;
Choosing to let so little light in
until knowing the things I know now.

My story, at last, has been laid flat
by the wisdom I’ve accumulated;
of discovery I was always where I was at
and feeling so frustrated.

All along I held the design,
as flawed as it may have been;
All the sorrows are still mine
now I’ve seen all the things I’ve seen.

Written for the W3 weekly prompt #172 using the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Énouement n.
the bittersweetness of having arrived here in the future, finally learning the answers to how things turned out but being unable to tell your past self.

French énouer, to pluck defective bits from a stretch of cloth + dénouement, the final part of a story, in which all the threads of the plot are drawn together and everything is explained. Pronounced “ey-noo-mahn.”

Laurels – 15th August 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 3 Comments

Run from your comforts
Pleasure is a charade
Reputation destroyed
Now’s the time to upgrade

Be no more prudent
Live where you are afraid
Don’t rest on your laurels
You must yourself persuade

A Breccbairdne inspired by a Rumi quote.

The breccbairdne is an Irish quatrain form.
– Quatrain (or four-line stanza) form
– Five syllables in the first line; six syllables in the other three lines
– Each line ends with a two-syllable word
– Lines two and four rhyme
– All end words consonate

True Power – 14th August 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 16 Comments

Armed with anger, we come to believe
that our wounded dignity is protected;
lock ourselves in to keep the monsters out,
all we see are targets to be rejected;

The demon whispers on our shoulders,
“Where is justice?” “Where is your peace?”
But anger never delivers on its promise,
a fast cash deal, a momentary release;

When wounded, why hold onto the pain,
unable to accept the simplest solution?
Your life is too valuable to sacrifice
at the altar of retribution;

True power lies in the ability to let go,
to walk away from a pointless fight;
outside is a world of possibilities
before the coffin lid slams shut tight.

Another paraphrased poem inspired by David Elikwu’s newsletter at The Knowledge.
Shared with dVerse Poetics Tuesday – power

By My Tides – 12th August 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 19 Comments

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I am a poison sink,
– a salty stink;
All the garbage dumped on me,
deep inside, where you never see;

Here I lie, absorbing this,
– your smelly piss;
I’m warming up for bigger blows
and thunderous electric shows;

The spilling of your sticky glues
mixes in my lethal stews;
My life may soon abandon me
to strike your shores randomly;

Monsters roaming adrift,
– a seismic shift
wreaking havoc in your community,
a slip that comes deservedly;

Fed from the mountains high,
then forever multiply;
Your moonlit veins of cyanide
will bury your dead, petrified;

Pushing through a narrow strait,
– winds whipped to create
the rising of a hurricane,
gathering your toxic rain;

I will be the antidote,
– your footnote;
A wave to overcome the pests,
complete destruction manifests.

Charlie Zero The Poet Music picks & Reviews #23 and my quick thoughts:

Villaelvin – This was pretty cool to listen to while I was doing other things. Some nice glitchy electronics.

Stine Janvin – This is too art gallery for my liking. Fine in the appropriate location, and I can think of many in Sydney back in the day, but not for me in my room.

Macula Dog – I’m familiar with MD already but hadn’t heard this one before. Gonna check it out some more.

Wreck and Reference – What an interesting record. At times it’s like a black metal album but with the drums and guitars removed, screamo vocals over keyboards. Nothing much catches for me but I love the idea.

Venetian Snares – The difficulty that I have with VS is that while skipping through the tracks it all became just the one song. It felt like it would be very easy to clip out bits, mix them up and call it a new album.