Tag: David Elikwu

There’s No Opting Out – 2nd October 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

You are a public class that everyone audits
Each slice of you remains a lesson
The observer is busy making behaviour edits
The observed will leave their impression

Respect the gaze of children; they know how to see
We are teaching by our existence
Tomorrow’s normal is today’s complacency
A museum of small acts’ insistence

There’s no opting out of your own exhibition
Everyone browses for their own cues
Influence is ambient, becomes tradition
Good or bad, it somehow all accrues

Another write inspired by a David Elikwu newsletter.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

The Most Valuable Asset

Friends and money are just bluffing
They can come and go with the tide
The wise person can lose nothing
They have everything stored inside

Your Watson – 28th September 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

What do you think, as the pen is poised?
Is the thought already fully formed?
Ideas get tested before being employed
Many of which can be ignored

Sometimes the sounds make little sense
The intelligent audience will reject
Every other idea must be dispensed
Until all the logic is found perfect

Let the paper test all your doubt
Brevity of words makes clear the reward
Most everything else can be crossed out
What’s left, highlighted and underscored

Inspired by a David Elikwu newsletter, where he discusses how Sherlock Holmes used Watson as a sounding board, much like many other famous people, testing ideas. So the writer tests their ideas on the page, in search of something meaningful.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

You Hold The Trump Card

Do you look at the day ahead and despair?
We could look at it and simply rejoice
What we’ve been granted is usable and fair
Your response is decided by your choice

Telling Time – 11th September 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Time reveals fragility

The status quo is a jester
A one-hit wonder
Soon lies under
The corpses of the investor

Entropy speeds up

Clinging to the last quarter
Tides recede
As they need
To find a new supporter

Inspired by a David Elikwu article at the Knowledge

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

What Would Less Look Like?

Could you carry on
If everything you had was gone?
When you live beyond your means
You live on borrowed dreams

Gut Feeling – 23rd July 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

After the fact, a story takes shape
A fairy tale that is no lie
Convinced by your own cover
Suggestion reacting to stimuli

Is it reason that came before action
Or is that just from a gut-feel?
The left may not know of the right
But together they can steer the wheel

We believe in our most plausible guesses
Filling in the narrative gaps
We are unreliable witnesses
Think twice before you trigger the traps

Another little write inspired by a David Elikwu newsletter about how the left hemisphere of the brain acts as an interpreter for our actions, even after we have carried them out.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Receive Honours and Slights Exactly The Same Way

Let go without attachment
Receive without pride
Everything can be taken away
Take it all within your stride

No Skin – 9th July 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment 
The shots come from the cheap seats
    unfiltered by positioning;
honest motives hold on to their receipts
    so you'd better get to listening.

Inspired by a David Elikwu newsletter.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

The Philosopher King

We’re all leaders in one way or another
Philosophy leads us to be king
We can’t just make it up as we go
Our reason and ethics must sing

Hollow Objectives – 2nd July 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

With infinite entertainments
And food delivered to the door
In climate-controlled environments
We couldn’t wish for anything more

But all with meaning begins to fade
We writhe with agony under the weight
Of an existential crisis made
As we focus on our internal state

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

On Duty and Circumstance

Amongst opportunities and obligations
So many questions will arise
Duty is found on solid foundations
So circumstance is never a surprise

The Hunt Is Over – 1st July 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

The hunt was for survival
The food was merely fuel
Now captive dancing monkeys
Has weakened the gene pool

Eating as performance
Is this a paradise on earth?
Slovenly and fattened up
For all of nature’s worth

Welcome to Universe 25
Coming to a city near you
Down into the behavioural sink
As all animals are wont to do

Inspired by another David Elikwu newsletter, this time about overabundance, how captive tigers are overfed by tourists and no longer hunt and the Universe 25 experiment, where rats in paradise ended up killing each other.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Do Your Job

Whatever anyone does or says
I must show my true colours
Every action, part of a system
Shared by the many others

Are You Alive? – 26th June 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

A brutal plunge into ice
A pounding at your ribs
Are you still alive?

Excruciatingly difficult words
Resolve the years of tension
Now you’re alive

The terror of the stages
You’ll still sleep tonight
You know you’re alive

Concentrated suffering
Is the strength of Spartans
Tomorrow you’ll be dead

Double up on credit cards
Comfortably stuck in bed?
You’re already dead

Inspired by another newsletter from David Elikwu

The Accident Of Time – 9th February 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

Trapped in a perpetuum mobile
of present moment stimulation,
not thinking about how to feel
outside of the ‘now’ situation.

Keep the babies quietly scrolling,
rehearsing their spectrum patterns;
boredom counter by constant extolling
of the anxiety that happens.

Swipe away any diagnosis,
all attentions have been diverted;
never quiet enough to notice
that society has been perverted.

Inspired by a David Elikwu newsletter discussing Paul Virilio’s ideas about dromology and how everyone is being diagnosed with ADHD now.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

You Don’t Have To Have An Opinion

There are whispers never heard,
mistakes that were never seen.
Must we always add our word?
Just imagine it had never been.

The Kindling – 27th January 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

The conversation you didn’t have
inconsequential in isolation.

Just another one for the road
or as a quiet consolation.

The small resentments came
after contributions, half-hearted.

“What’s the worst that could happen?”
was the kindling where it started.

Inspired by another David Elikwu article from The Knowledge newsletter.

The Daily Stoic poem:

The Three Areas Of Training

Our judgment affects our desires
Desires affect our deeds
And a clear composure inspires
The energy to meet our needs