All ideas already exist, waiting to be discovered by art.
An American Sentence inspired by the Red Hand Files #356. It may not look like much, but this poem is brilliant!
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Tag: poem
Corralling The Unnecessary
Murder House – 18th August 2026
The house dreamed itself perfect
with gleaming floors, white-brick smiles,
lawns kept trim and proper;
the fine print buried under elegant styles.
Inside, where rooms rehearse their lines:
promotion, bonuses, closing dates,
framed certificates, all little mirrors,
where “success” smoothed small mistakes.
Every door required a password,
every hallway became a funnel,
narrowing toward a single shining point
that lay at the end of the tunnel.
These dreams have their plumbing,
and somewhere underground
the pipes groan under pressure
until release is finally found.
The fairy tale of the bedroom,
turned on itself, 180 degrees;
love then became a ledger,
an audit brought to its bloodied knees.
A carefully budgeted future
splits along an invisible seam,
reckoning never knocks -
it’s built into the dream.
Outside, notifications soon circled
like headlines on a brand new day,
strangers pressed their faces
to the windows of the dream’s display.
Seeing not two people
but an x-ray of their own bargains:
what they traded sleep for -
“making it” with manicured gardens.
So, when the dream stood naked
under the fluorescent light of attention:
all the glittering milestones lined up
a bargain of murderous intention.
Reckoning is not thunder
but the moment the sun returns,
after the party, the scattered trash
collected, quietly burns.
The lawn keeps growing over,
as if to bury the past,
like nothing happened at all,
because nothing was built to last.
Inside the dream, he still sits
on the edge of his broken bed,
finally out of excuses,
reflecting on everything left unsaid.
Staring at his red reflection,
realising the story he’d been sold
had never been built
for this much truth to hold.
This poem is based on the article “Murder House” at Equator, which tells the story of the American Dream gone wrong for two intelligent Chinese immigrants and generated much online discussion back in China.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Only Fools Rush In
When you don’t bother to think
About the battles that you choose
It’s easy to get trapped at the brink
And remember what it’s like to lose
Me, Or….? – 17th August 2026
So much joy in youth
(Did I waste it?)
Why is the trip just one way?
Innocent eyes
look for answers.
Her skin making me quiver.
I have answers
but you’ll not
get them from me.
Go make
your own mistakes.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
The Buck Stops Here
Nothing but opinion causes the troubled mind
Can you go one day without blaming anything?
Your reasoned choice is the progress you’ll find
The progress towards the art of living
Fragments I-V (1973-1986) – 16th August 2026
Fragment I
There’s a pink gunge oozing down the shore,
across the pebbled beach
into the Sellafield radioactive waters.
Daring to swim around the bobbing turd bouys,
it’s here I dreamt I killed my father
whilst skipping stones.
Fragment II
Silhouette soldiers are pounding along the back lane,
vague shadows I see from my bedroom window.
Is this the end of the world already?
My father dead, I’m hyper aware of mortality
for a 4-year-old.
Fragment III
It was dark when I woke up
on the back seat of the car.
Alone and scared with no idea where I was,
I must’ve fallen asleep on the way,
and thinking it was the next day already
I was confused as to why it was dark.
A nice couple in a nearby house heard my screams,
chastising my mum and her boyfriend
who had been drinking in the pub.
Fragment IV
After her boyfriend cheated one time too many
we moved away and every time
a new man came into Mum’s life
I asked her when she was going to get married.
I wanted a brother.
It’s only now I realise I wanted a father.
Fragment V
I watched my mother just soldier on
giving me all the love she could afford
and as things got less complicated for her
they went the other way for me.
My own fault,
that’s another handful of stories and confessions.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Anything Can Be An Advantage
That thing you thought a curse
Doesn’t have to make your life worse
Dial into a different wavelength
To turn it all into your strength
Broadcasting – 15th August 2026
Are you smarter tonight than when you woke?
What was lost or gained through the words you spoke?
Animals don’t dwell in doubt, so eat yourself fitter!
Today you’re the receiver, tomorrow – the transmitter.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
The Supreme Court Of Your Mind
True and steadfast judgement
Follows from consistency
You become the sum of your actions
Choose wisely what to be
Screened Out – 14th August 2026
If I were a doctor, I’d prescribe a good book
That can be just as powerful as any meds
Perhaps a minute with Leo could get a look
Or that 3-page sentence from The Infinite Jest
If I were a prosecutor, I’d demand some essential reads
Re-education would make for a better place
Let’s see where some Crime and Punishment leads
Libraries are the rehabilitation of the human race
If I were a prophet, I’d gift you with empty pages
Write your own stories, trusted and understood
Everything is repeated again through the ages
Twain, Xun, Chekov, Murakami – it’s all good
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
This Isn’t For Fun, It’s For Life
Your life is not a parlour trick or meant for show
Pleasure is found in the philosophy that helped you grow
Learning is for life, not just to debate for fun
Every moment needs advice on the way things should be done
Grim Days – 13th August 2026
For twenty-six English years
never experiencing weather
—except those two weeks complaining about the heat
and that year of snow, not having to go to school—
grim days, followed by more grim days.
To Australia to enjoy another twenty-plus years
of all the weathers in one day, every day
—except snow, which only the rich could afford,
skiing around Kosciuszko National Park—
good days, followed by even more good days.
Then Thailand, for who knows how long,
where the weather is upside down
—winters are sunny and temperate,
summers, wet, wild and grey—
taking me home again.
Written for dVerse Poetics weather prompt and inspired by the depression felt on grey days, even here in Thailand’s hot rainy season.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Take Charge And End Your Troubles
Did the things you fear come to pass?
The struggles came, but didn’t last
Take charge and understand prevention
End your troubles early with intention
I Had To… – 12th August 2026
Gap fill exercise:
JUMP
__________ just to get a refund.
__________ with only one side of the story.
__________ angry at their stupidity.
__________ once the refund was approved.
__________ to be part of the community.
Answers:
through hoops
to conclusions
down their throats
for joy
on the bandwagon
The teacher in me jumped out for this dVerse Quadrille prompt #353
A little bit of fun.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Make The Words Your Own
It’s all been done before
So practice what you preach
Your actions are worth more
Than what the philosophers teach
Dispatches – 11th August 2026
A zombieland nurtured on cheap bread;
The mysteries paved over, its magic fled.
Who are the writers now that everything is read?
The rivers ran dry, revealing the bed.
Mere trifles and amusements exhaust the eyes.
Are these dispatches discovered in disguise?
Somewhat inspired by the first part of the Substack article The Highway Kind by Henry Begler
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
No Time For Theories Just Results
Habit beats theory
This is the real world here
Situations keep coming
Theories are not a career
Old Stories – 10th August 2026
It’s a long way from the telling,
the whisperings diffused on the breezes;
Reverence paid to ghosts;
a tabla-rasa written as the parent pleases.
Early chapters of setting scenes,
a paragraph guide to maintain flow.
So repeated as new calendars came,
a belief from which love cannot grow.
The current arc pleads for understanding,
yet fails to question its own morality.
The here and now, where others live,
holding on to their own stories of humanity.
Whatever it is, it’s just a story.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
1994ever 