Tag: GloPoWriMo

The Decision – 23rd April 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

I: Do it. No one will know. Pull the trigger. One move. Done.
Myself: You know that’s murder. You know what that makes you.
Me: Woah! Let’s slow down. Say I do it. Then what?

I: Then nothing. Peace. No more flinching every time a siren sounds.
Myself: You carry it forever. Every single night. Every single mirror.
Me: I hear both of you but this needs time to decide.

I: There’s nothing to decide. He breathed wrong. He wins if I don’t.
Myself: You win by being nothing like him. Don’t become the thing you hate.
Me: What if I just leave instead? Same result. No blood.

I: That’s the coward’s way out. He doesn’t feel a thing that way.
Myself: Exactly. He doesn’t feel a thing. That’s mercy. For both of you.
Me: I’m not sleeping tonight. I’ll decide in the morning.

Written for GloPoWriMo 2026 Day 22:
Write your own poem in which the speaker is in dialogue with him or herself.

Very much inspired by LucyLaughs at Writers Digest, who has been writing in dialogues like this for a long time. I wanted to imitate this style, making a note about it around a year ago, and today’s prompt pushed me along.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

The Mind Is All Yours

You are body, breath and mind
But only one is truly yours
Body broken, breath hard to find
Your mind carries all the cures

After Words – 19th April 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 8 Comments

Epilogue:

So that was it, the story done,
everyone was dead – everyone!
A tragic tale to be very sure,
even the heroes were no more.

But just as this tale was being told,
a similar one was taking hold,
Because history is always repeated,
as if the lessons had been deleted.

It becomes a chore to tell again
the hows, the whys, the where, the when.
So the storytellers always return
to teach the students who failed to learn.

Shared with GloPoWriMo 2026 Day 18:
Try your hand at writing a poem that could be a section or piece of a story. 

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Our Sphere Of Impulses

Surrender and serve the common good
With power or not – leave room
Everyone can be the one who could
Provide the answers that you’d presume

Some Kind Of Love – 17th April 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Every day I hear you call.
The beast rumbles
and so the hunt begins!

Temptations triggered
by olfactory memories.
Salivating salvations!

Down the aisles
or spread before me.
Swords to the ready!

Sometimes I don’t want
to talk or think about you.
I’ve had enough.

Some days are sharp,
others piquant or honeyed,
but balance is better.

Some kind of love?
Because without you
I would die.

Written for GloPoWriMo 2026 Day 16:
Write a poem in which you describe something that cannot speak, and what it has taught or told you.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

No Harm No Foul

The interpretation of words holds power
The difference between fight and connection
The choice between the sweet and sour
Is purely based on your reception

Hourglass – 16th April 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 26 Comments

Where did you go?

You were still there
as I tried to get each
grain of sand back
inside the hourglass
I’d smashed.

Our hearts no longer full
yet still far from empty.
When shared with another
did you disappear?
I can still feel you here.

Where did you go,
shuffling away so slowly?
I still see your trails
on every new horizon
I’ve chased.

Memories morphed
deeper within
the longer valleys between us,
old sun making shadows
of that time.

Where did you go?
My love.

Written for dVerse Poetics: Where does love go? and GloPoWriMo 2026 Day 15:
Write a poem that muses on love, but isn’t a traditional love poem in the sense of expressing love between romantic partners.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Observe Cause And Effect

Learn to identify the thoughts
 and behaviours that are destructive
Cause and effect are sorts
 where patterns are observed constructive

Skittering – 10th April 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

I am the king!
I’m a veteran!
For 400 million years
In the order of Blattodea.

Shedding nymph skins
Over a year of omnivorous nights.
Breaking down your decay
Into nutrients for our homes.

When you are ash and memory,
Footnotes in the soil,
I’ll still be here, one antenna raised,
Skittering from the sun.

Written for GloPoWriMo 2026 – Day 9:
try writing your own poem in the voice of an animal
“I am the king” is borrowed from The Birthday Party’s ‘Junk Yard’
‘I’m a veteran’ paraphrased from the Volcano Suns ‘Veteran’

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Judgments Cause Disturbance

The perceiving eye gives supposed meaning
Making judgments without screening
But the observing eye only sees what is
Simple, inanimate and objective

Interpolation – 9th April 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 20 Comments

The word cracks once,
 “Ceasefire!”
A fish bone lodges in a gasping throat
 but below, the fuses sputter: more wire, more fire,
 the relentless drums of war’s dark choir.

“Ceasefire!”
 – a child’s chalk-drawn heart,
 fading on a smoke-choked boulevard.
The sniper reloads to the lullaby’s lie,
 innocence fades, and children die.

“Ceasefire!”
 says the treaty ink,
 still wet, and bleeding into the desert sand.
The general’s watch ticks, a relentless drone,
 overrun, smashed upon the bloodied stone.

“Ceasefire!”
 a mother’s whisper,
 stitched into a flak-vest’s hollow glow.
The drone’s low hum, a discordant hymn,
 targeted through the night’s darkened brim.

“Ceasefire!”
 carves the chaplain’s tongue,
 while the armoury turns its key.
Counting shells like rosaries, again,
 the earth remembers its red, relentless stain.

On the evening news once more,
 “Ceasefire!”
 a graphic, three seconds, soon buried in mirth.
The bomb dreams of a birthday’s cheer,
while peace remains distant and fragile here.

But let the untouched voices rise,
 through the static and blustering press.
Not for victory,
 but the peace we desire,
– “Ceasefire.”

Shared with dVerse Poetics – imperative and GloPoWriMo 2026 Day 8:
use a simple phrase repeatedly, and then make statements that invert or contradict that phrase.
Current events made this too easy!

Today’s Daily Stoic poem

Test Your Impressions

A harsh impression is all you are
And not at all what you appear to be
I’ll not entertain you so far
If not in my control – you mean nothing to me

April 6th And Other Illusions – 7th April 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 8 Comments

We’re all weird,
      and it’s a weird world,
held together
      by shoestrings and bubblegum.

What did I dream last night
      when I was awake?
I know that I was there
      and those things happened,
but try explaining that
      to my psychiatrist.

The farmer burns his fields
      and the wind blows my way.
I want to get high on helium
      and bloody his face.

What did I dream last night
      when I was awake?
A dog in a mask
      chasing a cat with leukaemia…
Wait!
      That actually did happen.

There was another April 6th 2026
       but it wasn’t a Groundhog Day.
No parallel universe,
       just another April 6th 2026.

What did I dream last night
      when I was awake?
I wanted to sleep badly,
      but I was facing resistance
from the soggy pillow
      and my crooked neck.

69 kph through a red light,
      getting frisky on a motorbike.
I told her don’t grow up too quickly,
      but she was busy taking selfies.

What did I dream last night
      when I was awake?
There’s a fine line between
      what is real and what is acceptable.
All this happened,
      more or less.

Shared with GloPoWriMo 2026 – Day 6:
try writing with a breezy, conversational tone, while including at least one thing that could only happen in a dream.

Also written for Punam’s dVerse prompt from a couple of months ago, utilising the first line of a book as the last line of a poem: “All this happened, more or less.” Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

All of this happened and all of it was dreamt.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Expect To Change Your Opinions

Honour what you don’t know
You are not so smart and wise
Everyone has the room to grow
Arrogance is where opinion cries

The Denouement – 3rd April 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 12 Comments

From the bed,
all that’s seen is the grey spray of concrete wall
of next door
and a brief triangle of stars
in an oversaturated night sky.

Outside,
just below the bedroom window,
the plastic corrugated roof, rain-worn and sun-beaten,
rolls drips of night condensation
down into the yard.

On the bed,
a whimpering four-year-old shakes
with the news that we are all going to die.
Why you have no father;
why, one day, you too, will cease.

Along the alley,
beyond the open gate,
soldiers run in camouflage
through the garden and onwards.
A mystery that remains
over fifty years later.

On the bed again,
knowing the denouement is still making its way,
the world could still be grey.
Yet somehow, light shines from the horizon,
stitching gold into the four-year-old’s open hand.

A true story, my history, written for GloPoWriMo 2026 Day 2:
write your own poem in which you recount a childhood memory. Try to incorporate a sense of how that experience indicated to you, even then, something about the person you’d grow up to be.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Deceived And Divided

We’re far too easily deceived
When our attention and time are divided
We do the straddle and never succeed
At either of the options provided

We Wanted It All – 1st April 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

We sit in shelters with our eyes averted,
searching for faces among those who remain.
The Occupied Zone, completely deserted
of something that may adequately explain.

We wanted it all and found that we were lost;
we lost it all and wanted that even more.
The missiles with eyes always carry a cost.
…we make our choices when we open the door.

The brothers Rat hold knives to each other’s backs
while talking about life, about what is right.
The brothers Wright sit merrily taking cracks
knocking back a few ’til the end of the night.

Shared for the GloPoWriMo early bird prompt:

write your own poem in which you refer to a specific writer or artist (or work of literature/art) and make a declarative statement about want or desire. Set the poem in a particular, people-filled place, like a restaurant, bus station, museum, school, etc.

The references here will be obscure for most people. The brothers Wright, in this case, are artists Rob and John, of the Canadian Hall of Famers, Nomeansno and the brothers Rat, being their alter-egos in the song Brother Rat. All this is tied together with lyrics mangled from Brother Rat and another of their songs, Lost, words of which discuss shelters and the occupied zone, referencing particular current news events.

This poem is purposefully dystopian, dark and ironic about how people respond to loss and occupation.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

The Colour Of Your Thoughts

What is the feedback on your internal reports?
Do you put yourself fairly in the frame?
Colour your mind with the wrong thoughts
And your life will be dyed the same.