Tag: AllPoetry

Watts Right – 27th May 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

1. Cinquain

The rock

Cold, unyielding

The best contribution

Sits watching a world in turmoil

Solid

2. Quatrain

Airs punctured by gasoline,
a perfume of our cancers;
shout out, the suffering scream
louder than any answers.

Once unseen, I will surprise;
smash me, I will not succumb;
bitter salts anaesthetise,
remaining forever numb.

Stagnant water starts to clear
passing through old time’s filter;
endlessly, year after year,
re-righting the Earth’s kilter.

I meditate in silence,
breathing calmly, taking stock;
to counteract the violence,
I am an island, a rock.

Submitted for a final AllPoetry assignment. I tried to incorporate the senses into this poem more than I would normally do. This whole poem is also inspired by an Alan Watts quote:

“As muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone, it could be argued that those who sit quietly and do nothing are making one of the best possible contributions to a world in turmoil.”

For the last line – apologies to Simon and Garfunkel.

Syllable count per line – quatrain : 7
Rhyme scheme: Quatrain – alternating rhyme and Cinquain
Rhyme types: mostly perfect rhyme
Personification: I am a rock!
Senses: smell (gasoline/perfume), sound (shout/scream), sight (unseen) touch (smash me/numb), taste (bitter salts)
Alliteration: shout/suffering/scream, any/answers, unseen/surprise/smash/succumb
Assonance: shout out/louder, unseen/surprise/succumb, stagnant/starts, I/silence, meditate/in, counteract/the, am/an/a
Consonance: salts anaesthetise, re-righting
Metaphor/simile: The first stanza is a metaphor for the chaos of the world. ‘Once unseen’ – rocks are not something noticed but always there. ‘Bitter salts’ – lick a rock, it tastes salty. ‘Numb’ – rocks have no feelings. “passing through old time’s filter” – mineral water cleaned as it passes through rocks. “re-righting the Earth’s kilter” – no matter what mankind does, the Earth will sort itself out.

Mythmakers – 18th May 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

*Let’s gather our friends and make a storm,
to a circle of dreams, surrendered.
Our silhouettes in firelight perform;
Are the dead glad to be remembered?

We live again in celebration,
barreling through centuries of secrets.
The rites of our reincarnation
will render us forever sleepless.

We are the dragons of the mountains;
we may be sleeping one thousand years,
yet once drunk on youth from the fountains,
we all become willing volunteers.

The dead are glad to be remembered
by those of us creating the storm,
when to all our dreams we surrendered;
so they live on within us; reborn.

*I don’t think I wrote this line but, yet again, I forget where it came from. I often take notes of lines I like and come back to them much later. Sometimes I remember to put the source too. Sometimes not!

This poem was submitted to an AllPoetry assignment and was actually a bit of a struggle to write despite the assignment being based on rhyme, which is what am I most used to writing. Trying to include all the elements learned in the course so far sometimes makes me think too much about it and so I don’t get the flow that I would like.

I haven’t got feedback on this assignment as I write this but I’m guessing that they will respond that it’s not exactly clear what this poem is about, and that’s a fair enough assessment. To be honest, I had the first and fourth lines jotted down and then tried to write rhymes around them and see what came out of that as the subject.

It seems to be about remembrance and celebration of those who came before us. I was imagining tribal dances around fires at night and the myths we make in remembrance of our elders. Hopefully, that came through before you read this section!

The Time March – 19th April 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 15 Comments

Gravity really gets me down
Like a stone sinking in water
Waving goodbye, about to drown
As a lamb led to the slaughter

Run around, hurry up to wait
In the valley of my despair
The friendly fans of time frustrate
Words carved in flesh, my pain to bear

So to the end, I march toward
To the fate that awaits us all
It’s such a difficult reward
To be here for my curtain call

Submitted for an AllPoetry assignment on syllabic poetry.
23rd Apr 2025 – Shared with dVerse prompt – fate

“Come Over” – 25th January 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

I hate that I like it when you leave
me to wonder what you are doing
It’s only myself I choose to deceive,
a turmoil casserole left stewing

Between the devil and deep blue sea
I hate that I like it when you leave
Unsure to be tied down or set free
I’m trying to make us both believe

Mixed messages that we both receive
and send, hung up on to higher hopes
I hate that I like it when you leave
the bruises from your ugliest gropes

Our heads are nought but mush and despair
What is it that we hope to achieve?
Every night alone I say this prayer
I hate that I like it when you leave

Inspired by this post at Girl Online and also submitted for a refrain assignment at AllPoetry.com

No Bromides – 29th December 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

Poetry is perfect for cliche
It’s a better way
To say what I want to say!

Sometimes a synonym will do
It’s true!
At least it’s been thought through

Rewriting what’s previously written
I’m smitten
With the hand already bitten!

No poems of autumn or spring
So please bring
Me less cliched words to sing!

Written for a task at AllPoetry.com in connection with cliche. Cliches are often useful, so long as they are not overused, and often express exactly what is required. For me though, I really don’t like cliched poetic topics like seasons or flowers, unless done really well and bringing a new dimension to the subject. I have a pet peeve with some words too but I can’t remember them now because as soon as I see them I click away from reading and forget about them immediately. Next time I see one, I want to try and understand why it is that I dislike it so much! I looked up synonyms of cliche to find bromide! Haha! Never used that word in my life.

Freefall Reply – 26th December 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

This haiku was posted by Gary B. Dean at AllPoetry.com on 23rd July 2024.

Freefall

All leaves fall away
From the branches that lift them
For their only flight

I liked it and wanted to reply. So I did.

What is the meaning
Hidden in these words of yours?
How to understand?

The leaves fall away
Because the tree doesn’t need
Them in the winter

Once served their purpose
What use are they to the tree?
Good compost coming!

A Love Letter From Minas Gerais – 21st December 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Maturing in the still and humid air
On a steep Brazilian hillside
I deepen red as if blushing
Ready to be plucked and tested

Still sour before the procession
Dried on a dusty rack
Soon signed, sealed and delivered
My final journey nears conclusion

I’m roasted, stirred and blended
Slightly sweet and bitter
Cascading jets of steamy water
Extract my last juices

Remember me this fine morning
As you go about your day
It was my pleasure to serve you
To give you my get up and go

Written for an AllPoetry assignment about personification and returning to a favourite topic of mine!

Canon – 20th November 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 13 Comments

I have the words within my pages
My knowledge forms your future texts
Amassed wisdom sung from many sages
Collected comforts to which all connects

This power I pass for you to share
The lessons lived easily explain
To conquer chaos and choose to care
To shrink in size or grow to gain

Your personal action accumulates
Eyes sparkle like dancing diamonds
Mixing the messes of made mistakes
Form the future from many islands

Shared with What Do You See #263 and submitted to an AllPoetry assignment about alliteration.

Perfecting The Eight – 6th October 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

Here’s the one perfecting the eight-liner
Though some things must be said in twelve
Only enjoying writing the rhymer
And philosophy is the place to delve

Sometimes perfection is found in four
The idea sublimely surmised
Yet feeling obliged to write some more
Until the eight lines are realised

Submitted as a task for AllPoetry’s ‘An Expression of Yourself’ course.

Don’t be Ordinary

This assignment is going to take you beyond your reaches. I want something that you can’t even fathom writing. Go beyond what you think is normal.

Write to be remembered. Don’t write like anyone else… Don’t blend in! It’s okay to be original and shocking. To stir the pot and to poke the balloon and deflate it. Shake things up. Make a name for yourself.

Write a poem that you would want to define your ability. A poem that is read and the person is like… that is “your name here”.

Don’t write a poem where it could be stirred into water and blended in with everyone else.

This was an interesting task. I can look at a couple of other poets who follow their own rules and can be identified by their poetry.

As I’ve been writing for 40 years or so I don’t feel that I have a particularly identifiable style, though now I’m thinking more about it.

I do have a preference of style for my own writing though so I submit the following for now.

I could break my preference (and do sometimes force myself with different forms) but not sure that I could ever reach writing something that I can’t myself fathom…..

A Reconciliation – 23rd September 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 18 Comments

How to make something happen, how
To meet what’s left for me head-on
It’s a long road travelled upon
So what dreams of the future now?

I ran so fast to get ahead
After all the rushing around
I’ve found my feet stuck to the ground
How to make something happen, how

Can I learn from my past mistakes
Blindly followed the loudest voices
Crossroads offer too many choices
So what dreams of the future now?

How to make something happen, how
To reconcile the debris of all that’s gone?
So what dreams of the future now?

A reflection on getting older and wondering what might be next. I’m reasonably happy with my life and feel a little lack of ambition. This could be the folly of comfort but I’m tired too.
Shared with dVerse Poetry Form: Villonnet and Poets and Storytellers United – dreams and also for a course at AllPoetry.com
17th Dec 2024 – Published at Edge of Humanity