Guardian Angels – 5th May 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 3 Comments


How long have you been watching, knowing all the truths?
Allowing the story to unfold before deciding on intervention
Blacking out the sunlight so we make no foolish moves
The most pleasant form of submission, freedom from intention

A curious utopia makes idle minds become soon busy
Unable to trust what we cannot see and comprehend
The possibilities sent our philosophies all a-dizzy
Is the peace you guarantee the action of a friend?

As omnipotent overlords what purpose is your desire?
To defuse our will for independence over the ages
Or quiet the individual need to reach on ever higher
While our intellectual enlightenment engages

Once your face revealed, the body will weep or faint
Soon accepting the devil may be in the detail
The pursuit of pleasure left little time for complaint
And a peaceful coexistence came to prevail

The Guardian Angels and correct use of force
Countered suffering, mandated and employed
That gave some meaning the plebs could endorse
To avert their eyes from the beckoning void

Inspired by the first half of Arthur C Clarke’s Childhood’s End.
27th Nov 2025 – Shared with Esther Chilton Writing Prompt – angel

Love Lies – 3rd May 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 7 Comments

Venus is the odd one out,

rotates clockwise about its axis;

a western sky sunrise!

~ Hellish heat and truly toxic ~

Long, lazy days where

time tests with great temptations

and love lies in rebellion.

A Complex Alliterisen about Venus (planet and God) shared with dVerse MTB

Charlie Zero The Poet Music picks & Reviews #20 and my quick thoughts:

Mopcut – Pretty interesting glitchy electronica in places. Would’ve appealed to me about 20 years ago.

The Vegetable Orchestra – It feels a little like artists these days need some kind of angle. The results here don’t really float my boat but I can understand folks being into and appealing, ‘hey you gotta this album made with vegetables’

MADMADMAD – This is pretty cool and fun. Could definitely see myself enjoying this in a dingy warehouse on an industrial estate somewhere with plenty of neon and flashing lights.

CLD.RĀN – I like the glitch but the other stuff around doesn’t do it much for me. As I’ve said before for this style I usually defer back to Matmos.

PinioL – Ni and PoiL together. Jumped on this from the out. Could’ve been a mess but it’s freaking awesome.

Fragile Joys – 1st May 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

After singing the city song
Of car horns and conversation
I know the place where I belong
To enjoy a quiet vacation

These are tiny, beautiful things
The quietness once forgot
Broken only by the bird that sings
Of my invasion of its spot

And like a child that’s sent to bed
Before the party has even started
Remembering all I did and said
As life happens once I’ve departed

I leave so that I may return
To the shiny, furious noise
Money can’t buy the time to burn
These fleeting, fragile joys

Inspired/paraphrased from the first part of this post at Spinning Visions

A Pointed Smile – 30th April 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Shared with Momoetry April Poet Month challenge – finish. Inspired by the real-life struggles of a 16-year-old student, I reminded her to look at this situation with the positive spin that she usually can muster but cannot see right now. I remember that feeling, though I was never able to muster any positivity at the time.

One day, it will be gone and done,

a pointed smile towards the sun;

we made it to the end.

The trials and suffering, done and gone,

never slept on, always kept on;

well done, yourself, my friend.

Edit And Revise – 29th April 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 3 Comments

the story I write
I’ve been working on each day
revised over time
edited out false and foul
until finding happiness

one day it will end
I’ll look back and see the way
retracing my footsteps
laughing at the mistakes made
joyful at the freedom found

Inspired and lightly paraphrased from murder your darlings by V. Walker. Shared with Momoetry April Poet Month challenge – tanka

The Apple Toss – 28th April 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

It’s a fruity proposition,

hoping for the best to be;

The women await their apples,

as the men descend the tree.

In Ancient Greece, any man who wanted to propose to a woman would have to toss her an apple. If she caught it, he would know she accepted his offer. If the woman did not catch it, he would have to propose to another woman and hope for the best.
Shared with Momoetry April Poet Month challenge – micropoetry

The Contrafiction – 27th April 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Inspired and paraphrased from Some Thoughts on Mickey 17 by Jim Richardson and shared with Momoetry April Poet Month challenge

Out of the ashes of chaos media,
slogans brief;
ideas wax and wane;

participate and propagate,
only the expendable allows existence.


The contradiction;
the idea of choice as freedom;

each day, a sacrifice must be made
of the only significant resource.



A chance at life
given to illusion and leeches;

fictions created, narratives consumed;
enjoy existence at the expense of everyone else.

I Met My Younger Self For A Beer – 26th April 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 7 Comments

Shared with Momoetry April Poet Month challenge – narrative poem and inspired by reading this verse from orla.writes

I met my younger self for a beer,
as if we were mates, long-time friends.
(The longest time)

He looked at me suspiciously;

In some ways, I did too
but my suspicion was of myself.

I told him, ‘You don’t know me yet.’

He gave me a silent sneer of disapproval
but was smart enough
to ask what I would like to drink

and even offered to pay for the first round;
obviously understanding there would be more.

This will take some time, I thought.
(The longest time)

“What’s it all about?” he said,
“Can you give me a clue?”

I told him that clues are all we get,
that you gotta just keep going
and that I often thought of Mum
slaving away, hour after hour,
day after day
and eventually, I would understand why.

“Let’s have another beer,” I said
“But just the one.”