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.

How The River Runs – 11th August 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 8 Comments

A reimagining of this poem from Sadje – written for dVerse MTB – cherita

—

A merciless tide

drags the shore
no plea, no anchor

fists clenched at the sky
the storm passed
leaving only echoes

—

A silent serpent

slithers forward
beneath the bridge

ashes on the current
no hand can gather them
again

—

A calming salve

shadows swallowed
deeper than roots can reach

rest now
like a river at dusk
carrying the moon’s reflection

—

Fill This Space – 10th August 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 3 Comments

The hole in this room is getting bigger
as your withering whittles away at you;

The hole in our hearts gets bigger
as you shed your final skins;

The hole fills with yet more space,
even the perfumes are blown away with the wind;

The hole may be all that’s left to hold on to
after the burying of bones;

There’s a hole in our memories
where none had ever been needed;

The hole keeps growing to fill the space
until it is born anew.

Watching the end of lives can be crushing.

Schulweg – 9th August 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 27 Comments

seit dem kindergarten

unser alltag
gemeinsamer

kopf voller träume
offen
zum lernen

hand in hand
wir verlassen
den platz

und tragen unsere zukunft
in unseren herzen

gebildet

An up-and-down cherita for dVerse’s MTB and inspired by the attached picture. I used Google Translate to arrive at the German. I have no idea how poetic it might sound in that language – any tips appreciated. Here’s the original English write:

since kindergarten

our routine
together

head full of dreams
open
to learning

hand in hand
leaving
the square

carrying the future
in our hearts

educated

Are You Ready? – 8th August 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 3 Comments

Between a rock and a hard place
I cut off my arm to be free
Stumbling home for many hours
Surviving by drinking my own pee*

I lost an arm and a leg that day
At the races or falling down stairs
A one-ton anvil fell from the sky
And my wife had many affairs

At any moment, a plane may hit
Or a drop bear will drop on me
Mentally trained and prepared for it
I’m as calm as calm can be

Practising negative visualisation
*The story of Aron Ralston

An Explanation – 4th August 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 4 Comments

the urge is rising to complain

filling you with negative charges

the horizon always looks like rain

and the urge is rising to complain

the victim appears to explain

the circle of madness enlarges

the urge is rising to complain

filling you with negative charges

A triolet inspired by this Eckhart Tolle quote:

See if you can catch yourself complaining in either speech or thought, about a situation you find yourself in, what other people do or say, your surroundings, your life situation, even the weather. To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself a victim. Leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness.